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iTRATED 



ROBERT E, ROBERTS 



iS W a L A N D 



qjlNllTEOPYATIES 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDDDliESabSS 







Glass. 
Book. 



SKETCHES AND REMINISCENCES 



iTY OF THE Straits 



AND ITS VICINITY. 



ILLUSTRATED, 



B-2" ROBEI^T E. ROBEI^OrS. 




DETROIT: 

FREE PRESS BOOK AND JOB PRINTING HOUSE. 
1884. 



-^ 7 J5 2/- 



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TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE 
JUDGE BENJAMIN F. H. WITHERELL, 

AUTHOR OF THE MANY HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES 

PUBLISHED FROM TIME TO TIME OVER THE 

NOM DE PLUME "HAMTRAMCK," 

THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 



PREFACE 



THESE Sketches and Keminiscences, etc., of this ancient 
City of the Straits, have been compiled, believing 
that there are few persons who do not like to read of old 
times, particularly of such as relate to the home of their 
adoption, and to compare the statistics of the past with 
the present. Of the past we can know much, and can 
only wonder what the developments of the future will 
be — what the next half century will do for our city. We 
who have witnessed the marvelous changes within the last 
half century or more, may not be more astonished than 
he who fifty years hence chronicles the growth of the 
city since 1883. 

While much (covering a period of more than half a 
centnry past) is from personal observation and recollec- 
tion, the selections were published, from time to time, in 
the newspapers of the day, and preserved by the compiler, 
and were all written in Detroit, and to quote the saying 
of another, " They were all new when written." The early 
historical events are largely drawn from the writings of 
others, and the records of the Governor and Judges of the 
Territory of Michigan, of which the compiler was the official 
custodian for many years. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



y 
I. The Strait (Map). 

II. Aatoine de la Mothe Cadillac. 

III. Unveiling the Conspiracy. 

IV. Pontiac Memorial Tree. 

V. The Old Town of Detroit (Map). 
VI. The Moran House. 

VII. Residence of John Francis Hamtramck. 
VIII. • Detroit in 1811. 
IX^^New City Hall. 
X. Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. 
XI. Fountain West Grand Circus Park. 
XII. Schwarz' Mill, Springwells. 

XIII. Old Pear Trees. 

XIV. The Great Lakes (Map). 
XV. Detroit River in 1838. 

XVI. The Griffin. 
XVII. Coat of Arms of Michigan. 



CONTENTS. 



Detroit, its locality ^ 7 

Leading Historical events 8 

Population — Census from 1810 to 1880 1) 

Early History — Indians and Indian villages 10 

Changes of government 13 

Nationality of inhabitants 14 

Old Detroit from 1701 to 1805 14 

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac 14 

Fort Pontchartrain 17 

The first act of baptism 18 

Robert Navarre, notary royal 18 

The first physicians 18 

Siege of Detroit— Battle of Windmill Point 19 

First water mills 19 

French Commandants at Detroit , 20 

First Farm Settlers . . 20 

The Old Pear Trees 20 

The Red Cross supplants the Lilj^ 21 

Conspiracy of Pontiac 22 

Major Gladwyn and the Squaw Catherine . 23 

The Council 24 

Siege of Detroit 27 

News of Peace between France and England 29 

Battle of Bloody Run 30 

The Pontiac Tree 32 

Governor Hamilton and De Jean 35 

Fort Lernoult— Fort Shelby 36 

Peace between Great Britain and United States 36 

Northwest Territory 36 

Baron Steuben refused a passport 36 

Jay's Treaty, 1794 37 

Treaty of Greenville, 1795 37 

First flag of United States in Detroit 37 

Slavery in Detroit 37 

First Lodge of Free Masons 37 

County of Wayne set off 37 

Solomon Sibley — Lewis Cass 38 

Stephen Mack — first merchant 38 

John Francis Hamtramck. 38 

Town of Detroit incorporated 39 

School Lands 39 



CONTENTS. . 5 

Territory of Michigan created 39 

Governor and Judges apjiointed 39 

Detroit Burned 39 

Description of .Town, with Map 43 

Flag-staflf of Fort Lernoult 46 

Grants by Governor and Judges of Lots 46 

Peter Berthelet, L. E. Dolson, Peter J. Desnoyers 46 

Social Life in the Early Days 47 

The Little Church by the River 49 

The Moran House 53 

Residence of Colonel Hamtramck 53 

The last relic of "La Fort." 54 

The only relic of Fort Lerneault 54 

Rev. Gabriel Richard 54 

Judge James Witherell 57 

An Earthquake 58 

A disturbance in the waters of Orchard Lake 59 

Detroit in 1811 59 

War of 1812 63 

General Hull ordered to take Maiden 63 

The Army at Sandwich 63 

Colonel Cass in possession of Canard Bridge 64 

Army recrossed to Detroit 64 

Surrender of Detroit 64 

Judge B. F. H. Witherell on the Surrender 64 

Battle of Wyandotte 65 

Judge Woodward — Surrender of Detroit, and Massacre at 

Chicago 65 

Battle of Lake Erie 67 

Harrison's Army cross to Canada 68 

Retake Detroit 68 

Perry's Fleet Arrive 68 

Perry and Cass Aids to Gen. Harrison 68 

Battle of River Thames 69 

Colonel Johnson kills Tecumseh 69 

Governor Shelby in Command 69 

General Harrison came to Detroit 69 

Colonel Cass appointed Governor 69 

Inland Navigation from the Lakes to the Sea 70 

Erie Canal 71 

Pe-to-big killed Mr. Racine 71 

The First Public Market 73 

How Mails were received here 73 

No place of public worship 73 

City Council rooms 73 

President Monroe at Detroit 73 

Symmes' Hole 74 



D CONTENTS. 

First Steamboat on the Lakes 74 

The Scinapa Exploring Company 74 

Early Protestant Preachers and Churclies 75 

First Banivs 78 

An Exploring Expedition, 1830 79 

New City Charter — corporate seal 81 

Jefferson Avenue, extended — Turnpikes 81 

First Settlements * 84 

A Fourth of July episode 86 

A Story of a Donkey 86 

Kecollections of the Massacre at Raisin 86 

Territorial Politics 88 

Detroit & St. Jo eph R R 89 

The Black Hawk War 89 

Asiatic Cholera 90 

A Half Century Past— 1833 94 

Epitaph on " Field Marshal Day " 96 

Oliver Newberry — "Admiral of the Lakes " 98 

Captain Chelsey Blake — "Commodore of the Lakes " 98 

The Dearborn Arsenal 99 

The First City Hall 101 

A Serious Riot — Brady Guards 101 

Fires— Fire Department 101 

The Boy Governor of Michigan 106 

The Presidential Campaign of '40 108 

The Second Slave Riot 110 

Telegraphy Ill 

A Riot 113 

New City Hall 115 

A Bird's Eye View from City Hall Tower 116 

Business Centres 124 

The City Plat— Old and New 124 

Public Grounds 125 

By-Gones— Old Land Marks 129 

Nomenclature of some of the Streets 139 

Theatricals 142 

Time's Changes 148 

Sale of Public Lands 149 

Manufactures, etc 149 

The Old Pear Trees— Poetry • . . 155 

The Great Lakes 156 

High and Low Water 159 

The Rain Fall 160 

The Detroit River 160 

Lake Fishes 171 

The White Fish— Poem 172 

The State of Michigan — why it is great 175 

Michigan, My Michigan — Song 177 



DETROIT. 



rriHE City of Detroit — the Commercial Metropolis of 
-■- the State of Michigan, IT. S. A. — is situated on the 
north shore of the Detroit River or Strait {D'' Etroit)^ con- 
necting Lakes Erie and St. Clair, the boundary line between 
Michigan and the British Province of Ontario, 18 miles 
east of Lake Erie, and 7 miles west of Lake St. Clair, 300 
miles west of Buffalo and Falls of Niagara, and 545 miles 
from Washington, D. C, in latitude 42 degrees 19 minutes 
53 seconds north, and longitude west 82 degrees 58 seconds, 
or from Washington west, 5 degrees 56 minutes, 12 seconds. 
Difference in time from Washington, 33 minutes 44 seconds, 
and from New York City, 34 minutes 48 seconds. 

Detroit is the most ancient city of the great American 
lakes. Its history is most intiuuvtely connected with the 
history of the whole Northwest, as its settlement dates 
among the first on the American continent. It was at an 
early day, a point of central influence, importance and 
action. No place in the United States, it has been observed, 
presents such a series of events, interesting in themselves, 
and permanently affecting, as they occurred, its progress 
and prosperity. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT, 



THE FOLLOWING ARE THE LEADING POLITICAL AND 
HISTORICAL EVENTS. 

It was fikst visited by the French in 

1610. 

Founded by M. de la Mothe Cadillac, under the 

Government of France, in 

1701. 

Transferred to England in 

1760. 

Occupied by British Troops during the Revolutionary War of 

1776. 

Transferred to the United States by Treaty in 

1783. 

Taken Possession of by Wayne's Army, when the first flag 

BEARING the StARS AND StRIPES THAT EVER WAS FLOATED 

IN Michigan, was given to the breeze in 

1796. 

Surrendered to the British in 

1812. 

Retaken by the LTnited States in 

1813. 

It was founded in the strife for Sovereignty between the 

English and French Governments. 

Five times its Flag has been changed. 

First, the Lily of France floated over it; 

Then the Red Cross op England. 

Next the Stars and Stripes of the United States; 

Then again the Red Cross; 

And, lastly, the Stars and Stripes. 

Three different Sovereigns have claimed its allegiance, 

AND since it has BEEN HELD BY THE 

United States 
its government has been thrice transferred. 

Twice it has been besieged by the Indi.ajsts, 
Once captured in war, and once burned to the ground. 

Fire has scathed it. 

The tomah.\wk, scalping-knife and war-club have been 

LET loose upon IT IN THE HANDS OF AN 
unrelenting, savage FOE. 

It has BEEN THE SCENE OF ONE SURRENDER, OF MORE THAN FIFTY 
PITCHED BATTLES AND TWELVE HORRID MASSACRES. 



SKETC!HES OF DETROIT. 



THE OFFICIAL CENSUS OF THE CITY FROM 1810 
TO 1880, INCLUSIVE. 



Years. 



1810. 
1818. 
1820. 
1828. 
1830. 
1834, 
1840 
1844. 
1850 
1854, 
1860, 
1864 
1870 
1874 
1880 



Population. 


Increase. 


Average 

annual 

Increase. 


770 






1,110 


340 


42 


1,442 


332 


166 


1,517 


75 


9 


2,222 


705 


352 


4,968 


2,746 


684 


9,102 


4,134 


688 


10,948 


1,846 


461 


21,019 


10,071 


1,678 


40,127 


19,108 


4,777 


45,619 


5,492 


915 


53,176 


8,551 


2,137 


79,599 


26,429 


4,407 


101,255 


21,556 


5,414 


116,342 


1 15,087 


2,514 



The large increase at some of the periods is due to the 
extension of the city limits. Including the manufacturing 
districts of Springwells and Hamtramck, adjoining the city, 
the massed population in 1880 was 128,742, where now 
(1883) it is estimated to exceed 150,000, and witii the 
other towns and manufacturing places on the twenty-five 
miles of this strait between Lakes Erie and St. Clair, there 
are more than 200,000, all of which is tributary to the 
business of Detroit, 



10 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



EARLY HISTORY. 

Its annals stretch much farther back. 
Than gloomy days of Pontiac, 
Or Cadillac of yore. -Bishop. 

INDIANS AND INDIAN VILLAGES. 

The Strait was iirst visited by civilized man in 1610, 
two years after the settlement of Quebec, and ten years 
before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, At the 
time of its discovery, the Strait was in the sole possession 
of the natives of the forest, M^ho had their villages on 
both its shores. The explorers under La Salle, in 1679, 
found along its banks several Indian villages belonging to 
different tribes ; that of the Hurons, called Teuehsagrondie, 
occupied a portion of the present site of the city of Detroit. 
The Strait had often been visited by the Jesuit mission- 
aries and the coureurs des hois, but no settlement by 
Europeans was attempted. 

In an interview with Count Pontchartrain in 1705, M. 
Cadillac said there were two thousand souls in the Indian 
villages in the immediate vicinity of Detroit, and that in 
three years thirty thousand beaver had been killed. 

At the time the country was ceded to Great Britain by 
France in 1760, the Ottawa tribe of Indians had their vil- 
lage on the north shore of the Strait, two miles east of 
Detroit, just east of Parent Creek (Bloody Run). Here, 
on an island in the Strait, Pontiac, the great chief of the 
Ottawas, and great head of the Indian race in the lake region 
— the " Satan of this forest paradise" — had his home and 
head wigwam, where, says Parkman, " ' The king and lord 
of all this country,' as Rogers calls him, lived in no royal 
state. His cabin was a small, oven-shaped structure of 
bark and rushes. Here he dwelt with his squaws and chil- 
dren, and here, doubtless, he might often have been seen 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 11 

carelessly reclining his naked form on a rush mat or a 
bear-skin, like an ordinary warrior. Here Pontiac planned 
the driving every white man over the Alleghanies and 
destroying all the English posts in the Northwest simul- 
taneously on a fixed day. These consisted of thirteen 
well-garrisoned forts, stretching from Niagara and Pitts- 
burgh all along the lakes to the Mississippi and on tlie 
Wabash rivers. So secret were his plans, and so prompt 
was he in their execution, that ten of these forts fell in 
a single day, and their inmates were massacred ; but he 
himself met with a signal defeat at Detroit. 

In 1765 the English held a council with the Indians at 
Detroit, at which eighteen Indian tribes were represented. 

Here Tecumseh, chief of the Shawanoes, or Siiawnees, 
a wise and statesmanlike character, the noblest of his race, 
" rose, reigned and fell." Tecumseh participated in all the 
conflicts against the United States from the defeat of 
Harmer in 1T90 to the battle of the Thames in 1813, 
where he lost his life, and left no spot or blemish on his 
honor or humanity. He was shot by Colonel Richard M. 
Johnson of Kentucky, while wounded and held down by 
his own horse, which had fallen upon him, and Tecumseh 
was approaching to kill him. 

After the close of the war of 1812, the country was 
generally relieved from the ravages of hostile Indians. 
Still the Saginaw tribe of Kishkakon was very trouble- 
some at times — committing murders and outrages in the 
neighborhood of Detroit, which continued until 1826. 
When Kishkakon and his son Che-minck were lodged in 
jail for the murder of Wa-was-son, another chief, Kishka- 
kon supposed he was detained for the murdering of white 
men — he having killed a number — and could not be per- 
suaded to the contrary, though informed of the fact by 
Col. Beaufait, a favorite interpreter with the natives. His 
reply to the Colonel was, " No, the hats never forget.'" Kish- 



13 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

kakon called himself the " Son of Thunder." He sent a 
messenger to Saginaw with instructions to summon his 
band together and hold a wa-bi-no to importune Thunder 
(his father) to come and throw down the jail and liberate 
him on a particular day he named. He waited patiently 
and sullenly for the day when he was to be liberated. 
The day came, but Thunder did not, and he committed 
suicide by taking poison furnished by one of his squaws. 
Che-mi nek escaped from the jail and was not retaken. 

Kishkakon was a savage among savages. Some years 
before, he had a spite against one of his band, and charged 
him with a capital offense, and had him placed on trial 
for his life. Kishkakon presided at the trial. The pris- 
oner sat with a blanket over his head, so that he could 
not see what was going on, surrounded by the jury. The 
jury, after hearing the testimony, found the prisoner not 
guilty. Kishkakon inquired of the jury why they acquitted 
him. The foreman answered that he had not committed 
any offense deserving of death, according to their law. 
Kishkakon quietly arose, and taking his tomahawk from his 
belt, drove it through the blanket into the head of the 
prisoner, saying at the same time, " then the law is 
altered." 

Presents and annuities were given the Indians by the 
British government at Maiden, at the mouth of the river, 
and annually, in tlie month of June, thousands of Indians 
from the upper lakes, <3?i rouie there, stopped at Detroit, 
and lined the river beach, above the city, with their birchen 
canoes, and pitched their tents and lighted their camp- 
fires beneath the shade of the extensive orchards of pear 
trees which then lined the shore, on the front of the 
farms. On their return they again stopped at Detroit, 
and indulged in a drunken frolic; and, being more numer- 
ous than the whites, they were a terror to the inhabitants. 
They procured the fire-water in exchange for the point 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 13 

blankets received as presents, which were of superior 
qnalit}^, and most of the male inhabitants of Detroit wore 
overcoats made of them. The disbursement of their annui- 
ties at Maiden was discontinued about 1830. and since then 
few Indians have been seen in Detroit at one time, and 
now they are as great a curiosity Jiere as in any eastern 
city. 

CHANGES OF GOVERNMENT. 

Detroit was Urst visited by the French in 1610, and 
for one hundred and fifty years thereafter was under the 
dominion of France, and the 

I Lily 

lioated over its fortress until 1760, when it was transferred 
to Great Britain, and the 

Red Cross 
of England lioated over its fortress for thirty-six years. 
Although ceded to the United States by treaty in 1783, 
it did not extend its jurisdiction over it until 1796, when 
it was taken possession of by a portion of Wayne's army, 
under Capt Porter, when the first tiag bearing the 

Stars and Stripes 
that ever floated in Michigan, was given to the breeze 
from the flag-staff in tlie fort constructed by tlie British 
government during the American Revolution in 1778. On 
the 15th of August, 1812, Detroit was surrendered, without 
battle, to the British, and the 

Red Cross 
of England again floated over its fortress until September 
28th, 1813, when the city and fort were surrendered to 
Gen. Harrison's army, and the 

Stars and Stripes 
again floated in triumph over the fortress, where a year 
before it had been so shamefully dishonored. 



14 SKETCHES OF DETROrr. 

The first to inhabit Detroit, after the deluge, were the 
aborigines, next the French, then the Britons, and finally 
the sons of freemen and lovers of liberty of every clime. 
To-day the inhabitants are sixty per cent, native Ameri- 
cans, twenty-five per cent. Germanic, and fifteen per cent. 
Britannic and other nationalities. 

OLD DETROIT FROM 1701 TO 1805. 

The legitimate settlement of Detroit was in lYOl. M. 
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a native of France, who 
had been commandant at Michilimackinac from 1695 to 
1699, proceeded in person to Versailles, France, and pre- 
sented the subject of constructing a fort on the strait 
(d'Etroit) to the consideration of Count Pontchartrain, the 
colonial minister, to secure the trade with the savages, 
saying, " It is incontrovertible that all the waters of the 
great lakes pass through this strait, and this is the only 
practicable path by which the English can carry on their 
trade with the savage nations which have correspondence 
with the French. The English use every possible means 
to obtain trade, but if that post were fortified in form, the 
English would entirely abandon the hope of depriving us 
of its advantages. -^^ * * One cannot deny that our 
savages have hitherto hunted north of Lake St. Clair, but 
by this establishment, they would pursue the chase as far 
as two hundred leagues south of Lake Erie towards the 
sea, consequently those furs that make the greater part of 
the trade of the English by their savages, would be con- 
veyed by ours into the French colony, and make a very 
considerable improvement in its commerce." In answer 
as to the kind of furs there, he said, " the skins of the 
stag, deer, elk, roebuck, black bear and buffalo, with wolves, 
otter, wild cat, beaver and other small furs." 

The project was submitted to the king, Louis XIY, who 
approved it, and La Mothe Cadillac was presented with a 




ULIUS MELCHERS, SCULPTOR, DETROIT. 



AXTOINE DE LA MOTHE CADILLAC, 



LoKIJ OF THE PlACKS uF DoUAGUET AND MONT DeSERT. 

Commander of the King at Fort Pontchartrain. 
Founder of Detroit in 1701. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 17 

commission as commandant and a grant of land, fifteen 
acres square, " wlierever on the Detroit tlie new fort slionld 
be established," with instructions to return to Canada and 
commence at once the establisliment of a post on the 
strait. He arrived here on the 2ith of July, 1701, with 
fifty soldiers and fifty Canadian traders and artizans, and 
at once proceeded to erect a fort, which he called Fort 
Pontcliartrain. It was only a strong stockade of wooden 
pickets. The space enclosed was on the bank of the river, 
south of where now is Jefferson avenue, between Griswold 
and Shelby streets, with wooden bastions at each angle. 
Within the inclosnre a few log huts were erected, the roofs 
were thatched Math grass. Such was Detroit in 1701. In 
a report to Count Pontcliartrain in 1703, Cadillac says his 
"design in projecting the establishment of a trading post 
here in 1701 was to afford protection to commerce, since 
from this place we can go by canoe to all the nations that 
are around the lakes ; it is the door by which one can go in 
and out to trade with all our allies.'" 

Cadillac was a man of more than ordinary ability. He 
was educated at a Carmelite Monastery in St. JN^icholas-en- 
Lay, France, where he was born. He had gained distinc- 
tion as an officer in the French army before coming to 
America. His reports to the home government upon the 
condition and necessities of the colonies in America attest 
his statesmanship. He was a devoted Roman Catholic, and 
strenuously opposed to the Jesuit Missionaries, of whom he 
often complained to Count Pontcliartrain, of their interfer- 
ence with his manner of dealing with tiie savages. Cadillac 
remained commandant of Detroit until L710, when he went 
to Mount Desert, in the present State of Maine, where he had 
100,000 acres of land, a grant from Louis XIV. in 1688. 
He went from thence to Louisiana, in 1713, and became 
governor, where he was again conspicuous for his services to 
France, and was honored bv the home government with 



18 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

special confidence and consideration in his personal and 
official relations. 

Pie retnrned to France in 1717, and was appointed Gov- 
ernor of Castle Sarassin, which position he held until the 
office was abolished by royal decree. He died there and 
was buried in the church of the Carmelites, October 16th, 
1730, and that city has the honor of possessing the remains 
of the founder of Detroit. Now, 182 years after select- 
ing this beautiful and natural site for a city, and 153 years 
after his death, Cadillac's name and deeds are to be com- 
memorated by a life-size statue in a niche on the front of 
the City Hall, placed there through the liberality of Bela 
Hubbard, Esq., an esteemed and public spirited citizen of 
the City of the Straits. 

Cadillac was 41 years of age when he founded Detroit. 
In a certificate signed by him dated January 16, 1709, filed 
in St. Ann's Church, he styles himself "Lord of the places 
of Douagnet and Mount Desert, Commander of the King 
at Fort Pontchartrain."' 

The first act of baptism here was conferred on Marie 
Theresa, daughter of Monsieur de La Mothe Cadillac, and 
of Madame Therese Guoin, the father and mother. Ber- 
trand Arnaulet was godfather and Mile. Genevieve LeJendre 
godmother. The ceremony was on the 2d of February, 
1704, and celebrated by Brother Constant Dell Halle, priest 
at Fort Pontchartrain. 

The first judicial functionary here was Robert Navarre, 
Notarie Royal, to whose son Robert the Pottawatomie 
Indians deeded their village on the bank of the river, about 
two miles below the fort, on what is now known as the 
Godfrey farm within settled portions of the city. 

The first physician here was Dr. Henry Bellisle, who came 
with Cadillac. His successor was Dr. Jean Chapaton, who 
held the rank of major. He came here in 1715. He was 
an ancestor of Hon. Alexander Chapaton, and his son. Dr. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 19 

E. Chapatoii, who is now a proininent practitioner liere. 
Besides these there are descendants residing hero of the 
pioneers of the first half cenmry after 1701. Of those who 
were conspicnous, we may mention the Godfreys, Campaus, 
Chenes, Cicottes, LaFertes, LaFontaines, Guoins, Rivards, 
Lonrangers, DiiBois, Riopelles, Morans, Deqnindres and 
Thihonlts. 

De la Foret, who had been La Salle's lientenant, was ap- 
pointed Cadillac's successor at Detroit. He being detained 
by private affairs at Quebec the Sienr Dubuisson had tem- 
porary command until Foret arrived, iij 1712. Before his 
arrival the southern nations of Indians in grreat numbers had 
besieged and made a desperate attempt to destroy the fort. 
Dubuisson had timely warning, and prepared for the siege. 
The friendly Indians were garrisoned in the fort, which was 
well provisioned with stores. The assailants lost many killed, 
and after nineteen days withdrew to Windmill Point, eight 
miles above the fort, and there threw up entrenchments. 
The French and allies pursued them with two cannon, and, 
after four days' fighting, the besieged surrendered and all 
but the women and children were slain. The loss of the 
French and allies was sixty Indians and seven French killed * 
and wounded. The enemy lost a thousand. 

De la Foret remained in command till 1717 when he was 
succeeded by M. Tonty, an able French officer. 

Charlevoix visited Detroit in 1721, and spoke in high 
terms of Tonty's administration. 

Tonty was relieved and command given Boishbert in 
1728. 

Boishbert authorized a water-mill to be built by Charles 
Campau on what, in later years was known as May's Creek, 
— which has now disappeared. It stood near the crossing 
of Fort and Twelfth streets. This was the second water- 
mill built in the country. The first was built by Cadillac 
on the " Savoyard Hiver," where it crossed the Cass farm. 



20 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Windmills built in circular form, with broad sloping stone 
foundation and upright wooden body, surmounted by a 
conical roof, which was turned by a long timber sweep, so 
as to bring the sails into position, were numerous along the 
shores of the straits. 

The commanders at Detroit up to the time of its surren- 
der to Great Britain, in 1760, besides those mentioned, were 
Pajot, Deschaillons de St. Ours (a very distinguished officer), 
Desnonyelles, Noyan, Sabrevois, Celeron, Longueuil, De 
Muy and Bellestre. 

A Mission was established on Bois-blanc Island, on the 
Canada side of the Detroit River, commanding the main 
channel, in 1742; Father Potier had charge, and the village 
was very extensive, regularly laid out, and contained a popu- 
lation of several hundreds. In 1747 there was constant 
trouble with the Indians about Detroit, and Father Potier 
was obliged to leave Bois-blanc and go up to Detroit. The 
following\year, 174S, the Mission was re-established on the 
south shore of the strait, where now is the village of Sand- 
wich, then called '' Point Montreal."' Here they built a 
large wooden church which was the place of worship of the 
Catholics for more than a century thereafter. 

In 1749 settlers were sent here from France at the ex- 
pense of the government, and farms were granted them on 
both sides of the river, of four arpents (French acres) front 
on the river, and running back forty arpents. Farming 
implements, seed, and other advances were made to them 
by the government. They were under the charge of a 
Jesuit priest. His account book of supplies furnished them 
is in possession of the Historical Society of Michigan. This 
was the commencement of agriculture in the lake region. 
Among the supplies furnished were young fruit trees — 
apples and pears — brought from that enchanted garden of 
Europe, La Belle France. Orchards of these lined both 
shores of the strait between Lakes Erie and St. Clair. The 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 21 

product of fruit was in excess of the demand for consump- 
tion wlien the writer came liere fifty-six years ago, and 
apples of excellent quality sold at ten cents per bushel, 
until emigration from the east commenced about 1830. 
Some of the ])ear trees still remain, beariiig fruit, a single 
tree producing seventy-five or eight}^ bushels in a season. 
They have attained immense growth, resembling forest oaks, 
their trunks three feet from the ground measuring more 
than eight feet in circumference. They are the only living 
thing commemorative of the first cultivation of the soil in 
this new world — 

" And when those ancient trees are gone, which those old 

heroes set, 
The noisy waves shall chant their praise, though men their 

names forget. " Duffield. 

The old town of Detroit was called by the early French 
" La Yille d'Etroit,"— the City of the Strait— to distinguish 
it from other points on the strait. Detroit being the 
French woi-d for strait, it referred to the entire distance be- 
tween Lakes Erie and St. Clair. 

Down to 1725 there was a constant succession of difficul- 
ties between the French and the different tribes of Indians, 
many of which were attributed to the introduction of brandy 
and after the Indians had become accustomed to its use 
prohibiting its sale to them. From that time no very seri- 
ous calamity occurred here while it remained under the 
dominion of France. 

Tlw Red Gross Supplants the Lily. 

The French and English struffffled lono- and stubbornlv 
for the control of the Western Continent, but at last the 
decisive conflict came, when the Canadas were staked and 
battled for on the plains of Abraham. With the fall of 
Montcalm the French power was forever broken. 

On the 18th of September, 1759, Quebec "the rock-built 



22 SKETCH p:s of detkoit. 

citadel of Canada" was captured by the English, and on the 
8th of September, 1760, Montreal and its dependencies, in- 
cluding Detroit and the whole northwest was snrrendei'ed l)y 
France to 

GREAT BRITAIN, 

and shortly after a force of British troops, under Major 
Robert Rogers, took possession of Detroit when the 

Fleur Be Lis, 
which had waved over its fortress foi' sixty years was struck, 
and in its place the 

Red Cross of St. George 
was given to the breeze. 

The French troops were sent to Philadelphia, and the in- 
habitants taking the oath of allegiance were allowed to 
remain and retain their houses and farms. 

Major Rogers left Detroit on the 23d of December for 
Pittsburgli, leaving Major Campbell in command here. 

In 1761 the British troops took possession of the posts at 
Mackinaw, Green Bay and Sault St. Marie, and the whole 
northwest, which had been for one hundred and fifty years 
under the Dominion of France, passed from under its con- 
trol forevei'. 

The jealousy of the Indians was greatly excited by this 
change of rulers, who made an abortive attempt to destroy 
the forts along the lakes in 1761. In 1762 many outbreaks 
occurred, but no decisive blow was struck. Pontiac, chief 
of the Ottawas, conceived a plot for the extermination 
of the aggressors, and late in the fall of that year held a 
council with the chiefs of the western tribes of Indians at 
the river Ecorse, eight miles below Detroit, at which the 
Ottawas, Hurons, Pottawatomies, Iroquois, Delawares, Sen- 
ecas, and all the tribes of the iS^orthwest were represented. 
After lighting their council-fires and smoking the pipe of 
peace, Pontiac addressed them in strains of impassioned 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 23 

eloquence, and unfolded his jjlan of crushing the English 
and regain possession of the liunting grounds of their 
fathers. The scheme, which was comprehensive in design 
and minute in detail, would have reflected honor on any civ- 
ilized mind. The scheme had the approbation of the assem- 
bled chiefs, when Pontiac assigned to the representatives of 
each tribe their part in the great tragedy, and enjoined on 
them the utmost secrecy ; and, after agreeing on the day in 
the following spring when the destructive blow was to be 
struck, which was to be simultaneous at all the forts from 
Niagara and Pittsburgh along the lakes to the Mississippi 
and Wabash Rivers, other preliminaries were settled, and 
with a war dance and carousal, the assemblage dispersed. 
The result was the capture of ten of the thirteen forts, as 
elsewhere described, Detroit being among the number that 
escaped destruction. That he failed here was no fault of 
his. The treacherous chief was himself betrayed by an 
Ojibway girl who dwelt with the Pottawatomies, and who 
revealed to Major Gladwyn, the commandant of the fort, 
the impending danger. 

The accompanying engraving is from the painting by J. M. 
Stanley, owned by Hon. Moses W. Field, of Detroit. The 
scene is laid in the quarters of Major Gladwyn, and the fig- 
ures are the Major and Catherine, the Ojibway squaw, who 
is communicating to him in an earnest manner the conspir- 
acy. The interior decorations, though rude, are character- 
istic. 

The following extract from Parkman's History will give 
an idea of the scene represented : 

"In one of the Indian villages near, lived an Ojibway girl, who, if 
there be truth in tradition, could boast a larger share of beauty than is 
common in the wigwam. She had attracted the eye of Gladwyn, and had 
become much attached to him. On the afternoon of the 6th, Catherine, 
for so the citizens called her, came to the fort, and repaired to Gladwyn's 
quarters, bringing with her a pair of elk-skin moccasins, ornamented 
with porcupine work, which he had requested her to make. There was 



24 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

something unusual in her looli and manner. Her face was sad and 
downcast. She said little, and soon left the room; but the sentinel at 
the door saw her still lingering at the street corner, though the hour for 
closing the gate had nearly come. At length she attracted the notice of 
Gladwyn himself, and calling her to him, he pressed her to declare what 
was weighing on her mind. Still she remained for a long time silent, 
and it was only after much urgency and many promises not to betray 
her, that she revealed her momentous secret. " To-morrow," she said, 
"Pontiac will come to the fort with sixty of his chiefs. Each will be 
armed with a gun cut short, and hidden under his blanket. Pontiac will 
demand to hold a council; and after he has delivered his speech he will 
offer a peace belt of wampum, holding it in a reversed position. This 
will be the signal of attack. The chiefs will spring up and tire upon the 
officers, and the Indians in the street will fall upon the garrison. Every 
Englishman will be killed, but not the scalp of a single Frenchman will 
be touched. " Gladwyn was an officer of signal courage and address, 
He thanked Catherine, and promised her a rich reward ; told her to go 
back to her village that no suspicion might be kindled against her." 

On the same day, William Tucker, a soldier in the fort, 
who had been captured in his boyhood and adopted into the 
tribe of his captors, received from his Indian sister intima- 
tion of the designs of Pontiac, which he communicated to 
the commandant. So Gladwyn had everything in complete 
readiness to meet the assault, and when Pontiac, on the 6th 
of May, 1763, with his sixty chiefs under pretext of holding 
a friendly council, entered the gates of the fort he be- 
came convinced that his plot was discovered by the un- 
wonted array of armed soldiers in the streets and at the 
guns on the bastions. After some hesitation, the Indians 
seated themselves on mats, when Pontiac arose and stretch- 
ing his majestic form to its full height, and addressing 
the commandant, said he and his chiefs had come to smoke 
the pipe of peace and strengthen the cords of friendship ; 
that they had great reverence for the superior knowledge of 
the English and desired to conciliate their favor. He spoke 
of the number of his braves and their deeds of valor. In 
his hand he held the sacred emblem of peace, a belt of 
wampum with which he was to give the signal of attack, 
and which the officers watched with the keenest vigilance as 



r; 
:^ 

<; 

r 

o 

H 

n 

o 

3 

> 
n 




SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 27 

they listened to his hollow words. He once raised the belt 
as if to give the preconcerted signal, the motion was seen by 
the quick eye of the commandant who passed his hand 
across his brow, when a sudden clash of arms was heard 
without, the drums rolled the charge, and the tramp of 
soldiers resounded along the street. Major Gladwyn was 
unmoved, with his eyes fixed on the treacherous chief, who, 
with looks of astonishment, stammered out more professions 
of friendship and presented the belt in the usual manner, 
which Gladwyn received, saying to his savage auditors that 
they could rely on his friendship and protection as long as 
they deserved it, but threatened them with the most fearful 
vengeance for any act of perfidy or aggression. 

This closed the council, and the gates which had been 
closed during the sitting, M'ere opened and the baffled chiefs 
departed. When beyond the precints of the fort, and 
joined by their warriors who had assembled on the common 
near the fort under the pretext of playing a game of ball, 
the whole band burst forth in terrific yells, and rushed 
madly around, massacring any English they came across 
without regard to sex or age. The main body of the 
Indians, numbering about one thousand warriors, stationed 
behind the picket fences and houses and barns on the east 
line of the commons — called the King's Dominion — com- 
menced firing upon the garrison. 

Pontiac sullenly walked away alone, and embarked in his 
canoe to the Ottawa village on the south shore, and at once 
ordered the removal of the camp to the opposite shore ; 
before nightfall it occupied the rise of ground east of 
Parent Creek. 

Detroit was now in a state of siege. Day and night the 
Indians kept up incessant firing on the fort, and a simul- 
taneous attack was hourly expected. After the Indians had 
attacked the fort and been driven off M'ith considerable loss, 
Gladwyn sent Messrs. Chapoton and Godfrey to parley with 



28 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Pontiac, who completely deceived them into supposing he 
was disposed to treat. He wanted Major Campbell, Glad- 
wyn's predecessor — who was greatly esteemed by French and 
Indians — to come to his camp and " settle all difficulties, and 
smoke the pipe of peace together." Against the advice of 
of (xladwyn, Major Campbell, anxious to terminate the 
vexatious warfare even at the hazard of his own life, accom- 
panied by Lieut. Geo. McDougall, and a number of the 
French inhabitants, went to Pontiac's camp. Once in his 
power, the treacherous chief sent the French back with a 
message to Gladwyn, that Major Campbell and Lieut. Mc- 
Dougall would be held as hostages for the surrender of the 
fort, Lieut. McDougall made his escape and returned to 
the fort. Major Campbell, while taking his accustomed 
walk — which Pontiac permitted — ^was murdered by a chief 
of the Chippawas, whose uncle had been killed by the Eng- 
lish. By this act Pontiac's design of compelling the surren- 
der of the fort was frustrated, and the indignant chief in 
vain made every effort to apprehend the murderer, who fled 
to Saginaw — as his life M'ould have paid the penalty of 
his temerity. The death of Major Campbell was a sad 
blow to the besieged and almost disheartened garrison. 

The garrison was now short of provisions, and on the 2l8t 
of May the schooner Gladwyn was despatched to Niagara 
for supplies. On the oOth day of May a convoy, consisting 
of twenty-two batteaux laden with provisions and munitions 
of war, and manned by a reinforcement of troops, was cap- 
tured by the Indians, in the river below Sandwich Point, 
The troops were taken to He au Cochens (now the City 
Belle Isle Park) and put to death with all the horrors of 
Indian barbarity. About this time Pontiac was reinfoi'ced 
by large bodies of warriors from four neighboring tribes, 
and felt certain of success. Still the brave band in the 
little fort held it, and all the buildings outside the ramparts 
which sheltered the Indians were burned with hot shot from 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 29 

the fort, or by sorties made by the garrison. For sixty days 
and nights, every man was on dnty, catching sleep as they 
conkl with their clothes on, and gnns by their side. 

On the 3d of June the news of peace between France and 
England reached Detroit. From being prisoners by capitu- 
lation the French inliabitants now had the choice to either 
continue their neutrality or take part with the contending 
parties. They chose to remain neutral. 

The schooner Gladwyn returned from Niagara, after hav- 
ing been twice attacked by Indians, on the 80th of June, 
bringing a reinforcement of sixty troops, with provisions 
and ammunition. 

Pontiac now saw the necessity and made the attempt to 
destroy the two vessels which lay anchored before the fort, 
by means of fire-rafts set adrift above them on the river, 
expecting the current would bring them in contact, and 
secure their destruction, but they were met by the sailors in 
small boats, who grappled them and turned them at a safe 
distance from the vessels. 

On the 29th of July another fleet of batteaux arrived, 
with three hundred regular troops, under command of 
Captain Dalzell, an aid-de-camp of the British Commander- 
in-chief, Sir Jeffrey Amherst. On the day of his arrival, 
Capt. Dalzell asked permission to attack Pontiac's camp, and 
endeavored to convince the more cautious and experienced 
Gladwyn that the time had come when one decisive blow 
would terminate this vexatious war. Gladwyn hesitated and 
pointed out the danger of such an attempt, but finally 
yielded. 

By some means Pontiac was apprised of Dalzell's design, 
and he stationed his warriors in ambush along the route 
from the fort to his camp on the i-ise of ground east of 
Parent Creek, which discharged into the Detroit River 
about two miles from the fort. The only road to the camp 



30 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

was on the river beacli, fronting: wliicli there were farm 
honses, not more than four acres apart, the entire distance. 

At two o'clock in the morning of July 31, 1763, Capt. 
Dalzell and two hnndred and fifty Britisli troops of the 55th 
and SOth regiments marched out of the fort and up the 
river road in double file and perfect order, while two large 
batteaux, full-manned, with a swivel on the bow of each 
boat, were rowed up the river abreast of the troops. The 
night was dark, still and sultr3\ The advance of twenty- 
five men was led by Lieut. Brown ; Capt. Gray commanded 
the centre, and Capt. Grant's detachment brought up the 
rear. At the mouth of Parent Creek, since known as 
Bloody Run, the road crossed a low bridge about thirty feet 
long. As soon as the troops reached the bridge they were 
met by a murderous fire from the Indians in front, in 
ambush on the east bank of the creek, when one half of the 
advance-guard fell. Captain Dalzell immediately advanced 
to the front, rallied the troops and rushed i-apidly across the 
bridge. But their foes had fled. In vain they sought them 
in the gloom. They had crossed the creek on a mill-dam 
above and joined the main body on the west bank, which 
lay among the scrub willows lining the banks, from which 
their guns soon flashed incessantly, and the war cry rang 
out with undiminished ferocity. Here tlie troops direc- 
ted their fire and attempted to dislodge them, when the 
ravine became a scene of carnage. The troops were unac- 
quainted with the locality, were soon bewildered in the 
darkness, and they were compelled to retreat. When the 
men resumed their marching order Captain Grant was in 
advance and Dalzell in the rear; Captain Gray was killed. 
About a mile from the fort, on the right as they returned, 
was a cluster of houses and barns, entrenched with strong 
picket fences. The river was close on the left and there 
was no way of escape except along the narrow passage that 
lay between. To many of the retreating soldiers it was the 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT, 31 

wa}^ to death. A large body of Indians lay here in ambus- 
cade. The troops were suffered to advance unmolested till 
they wfere directly opposite, when, with terrific yells, the 
Indians poured volley after volley upon them. The troops 
broke their ranks, and but for tlie presence of the brave 
Dalzell, himself twice wounded, they would have tied and 
thus secured their complete destruction. Encouraged by 
the voice of their leader, the soldiers again rallied, and com- 
parative order was restored. A little further on, the brave 
Dalzell stepped aside from the ranks to aid a wounded 
soldier, and was shot dead by a ball from the enemy. 

The Indians still pressed on in hot pursuit, and destruc- 
tion of the entire force seemed inevitable, when Major 
Rogers and his rangers from the fort succeeded in gaining 
possession of the house of M. Campau, which commanded 
the road, and covered the retreating regular troops. 

Meantime Captain Grant had moved forward half a mile 
and was able to maintain his position within the inclosure 
of an orchard until tlie arrival of the remaining troops. All 
the men he could spare were detached to different points 
below, and the constant arrival of troops enabled him to 
reinforce these posts till a line of communication was 
formed to the fort, effectually securing the retreat. But 
Major Rogers and his men found themselves besieged in the 
house of Campau by about two hundred Indians. 

The two batteaux which had brought the dead and 
wounded to the fort, now returned and opened a lire from 
their swivels, which dispersed the savages and covered the 
retreat of Rogers. At eight o'clock in the morning the sur- 
vivors entered the fort bavins: lost seventv men killed and 
forty wounded. 

Thus terminated the sanguinary battle of Bloody Run, 
the most terrible conflict on record in the annals of Detroit. 
It was a remarkable instance of a hand-to-hand light with 
Indians for six hours in that short road. 



32 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

The scene of this conflict has now entirely changed. The 
bridge is gone, the margin of the Detroit River where it 
crossed the run was further inland than now, and the mod- 
ern subterranean sewer has done the work for "Bloody Run.'"' 
Its glory has departed, it is '' among the things that were," 
and no relic is left but a huge white-wood tree riddled with 
bullets known as 

Tlie Pontiac Tree, 
which has not yet been sacrificed to city improvements. It 
is the only remaining monument commemorative of the 
sanguinary battle fought by the pioneers of civilization in 
the western wilds. When the old tree is gone, a more 
enduring monument should be erected to Capt. Dalzell and 
his heroic fallen band. 

When the writer first saw this tree, in 1S27, it was then 
a conspicuously large tree ; old residents here called it the 
Pontiac tree, and claimed it was there at the time of the 
battle. 

In 1829 the writer listened to an address written in verse 
by one who had served an enlistment in the army, descriptive 
of the siege of Pontiac and battle of Bloody Run, in which 
Pontiac and his warriors were described stealthily crossing 
to the west side of the run on a mill-dam just north of the 
" Pontiac tree," and secreting themselves among the scrub 
willows that lined its banks, the warriors lying flat on the 
ground, Pontiac alone standing. On the soldiers nearing 
the bridge, he firmly and slowly said in a loud and com- 
manding tone : 

" Warriors, arise, make the attack. 
It is the voice of Pontiac," 

when a murderous fire from the Indians in ambush on the 
east, was poured into the advance troops on the bridge, 
simultaneously with the attack on the main body by the 
Indians on the west bank. 




CORNELIA H. ROBERTS, 1883. 



PONTIAC MEMORIAL TREE. 

At Bloody Run, on Grounds of Michigan Stove Works, 

With mute eloquence it tells of the scene of 
carnage at its base in 1763. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 35 

The siege of Fort Pontchartrain went on with various 
noteworthy episodes and continued for six months. In 
October the besiegers began to disappear, and Pontiac 
returned to the Maumee country, when he found the final 
treaty of peace was signed between France and England, 
and that no help could henceforth come from the Fi-ench in 
Canada. 

In 1764 General Bradstreet came with a force and re- 
lieved the worn-out garrison. He made a treaty of peace 
with the Indians. 

The importance of Detroit was now fully recognized, and 
it was made the central point for all the western interests. 

In 1776 one Captain Phillip de Jean, an emigrant from 
France was appointed a magistrate for Detroit l)y the 
British Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, then in command 
here, on the 18th of March, 1776. Under Hamilton's 
orders he tried one Jolm Contencineau for stealing some 
beaver, otter and raccoon skins from Abbott & Finchly, fur 
dealers, and Ann Wylie, formerly a slave of Abbott & 
Finchly, on a charge of stealing a purse containing six 
guineas, etc. Justice De Jean found them guilty and his 
sentence was that they be ''hanged, hanged, hanged, and 
strangled until they be dead, on the King's Domain," and 
they were hanged. 

Gov. Hamilton and De Jean soon after left on a military 
expedition to "the Illinois," where they were made prisoners 
by Gen. George Rogers Clark, whom the State of Virginia 
had sent over the Alleghanies with a small force to protect 
the infant settlements of the west. Hamilton and De Jean 
never returned to Detroit. Had they done so they would 
have been tried for murder, as the Governor-General and 
Chief Justice had caused warrants to be issued from Quebec 
for their arrest. 

Under the British rule many improvements were made 
here. New barracks for officers and soldiers were built. 



36 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

During the American Revolution about 500 British troops 
were stationed here, under the command of Major Lernoult 
(or Leverault, as in the diary of Judge May, who was a resi- 
dent here at the time). The success of the American arms 
at Vincennes in 1778, and the prospect that the victorious 
troops would continue their course onward to Detroit, in- 
duced Major Lernoult to erect a large earth fort here on the 
" second terrace " back of the city. It occupied what now 
are four squares, bounded on the east by Griswold street, 
west by Wayne street, north by Lafayette street and south b}^ 
Congress street. This efficient fortification was called Fort 
Lernoult, which name it bore until after the battle of the 
Thames, in 1813, when it was changed to Fort Slielby, in 
honor of Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, who at the ad- 
vanced age of sixty -six years, commanded in person the 
Kentucky vohinteers in that battle. It was occupied by 
United States troops until 1827, when it was razed. 

By the treaty of peace in 1783 between Great Britain and 
the United States, it was claimed that Detroit was within 
American bounds. This was disputed by the Canadian 
authorities, and when General Washington sent Baron 
Steuben to Quebec to make arrangements for the transfer of 
the northwestern forts, including Detroit, Sir Frederick 
Haldimand declined to surrender them, and refused him a 
passport to Detroit. 

In 1787 the whole region northwest of the Ohio River 
claimed by the United States, though still occupied b}' the 
British, was organized by Congi'ess into the 

Northwest Territory 

and General Arthur St. Clair was appointed Governor. 

In 1793, the fort at Detroit was occupied by British troops 
under the command of Colonel England of the 24th regi- 
ment. In the strait in front of the city, were anchored a 
formidable fleet, consisting of the brigs Chippewa and Ot- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 37 

tawa, carrying eight guns each, the brig Dunmore, six guns, 
and the sloop Felicity, armed with two swivels, all belong- 
ing to His Majesty George III, and under command of 
Commodore Grant. 

In 1794 a treaty was executed between Mr. Jay, as 
American Minister, and the British Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs, Lord Grenville, whereby it was agreed that the 
forts should be given up on or before June 2d, 1796. 

By the stipulations of the treaty of Grenville, made by 
General Anthony Wayne with the Indian tribes, in 1795, 
Detroit and all the Northwest Territory became the undis- 
puted property of the United States, and the following year 
Captain Porter, with a detachment from General Wayne's 
army, took possession of Detroit and hoisted the first flag 
bearing the 

Stars mid Stripes 

that ever floated in Detroit. 

Before evacuating the fort the British soldiers tilled the 
well with stones, broke the windows of the barracks, locked 
the gates and gave the keys to an old negro who surrendered 
them to Captain Porter. 

Slavery always existed in the Province, and Africans were 
held in slavery in Detroit as late as 1807, noth withstanding 
the ordinance of 1787 declared that "there shall neither be 
slavei*^ nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, 
otherwise than in the punishment of crime." 

Under sanction of the Grand Lodge of Canada, in 1794, 
the first lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, styled " Zion 
Lodge, No. 10," was organized in Detroit. 

On the 18th of August, 1796, Winthrop Sargent, Acting- 
Governor of the Northwest Territory, set apart the County 
of Wayne. Its boundaries extended from Cuyahoga River 
(Cleveland), westward about to the dividing line now exist- 
ing between Indiana and Illinois, and thence northward to 
the national boundary line, including all of the subsequent 



38 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Territory of Michigan, which embraced Wisconsin and a 
portion of Ohio and Indiana. Detroit was the county seat. 
A Court of Common Pleas was organized, and annually the 
Supreme Court of the Territory held one session at Detroit 
until 1803, when Michigan was separated from Oliio. 

Solomon Sibley, father-in-law of the late C. C. Trow- 
bridge, was the first United States citizen to settle in De- 
troit after its occupation by the United States in 1796. He 
was a prominent lawyer in Marietta, Ohio, and came 
here in 1797. Four years later he married the daughter 
of Col. Ebenezer Sproat, an officer of the devolution, at 
Marietta, and made the journey with his young bride from 
there to Detroit on liorseback ; en route they stopped at 
the hospitable home of Major Jonathan Cass, where they 
first saw Lewis Cass, the future soldier and statesman. He 
was then fresh from Dartmouth, and at the time engaged 
pounding samp in a hollow stump. Mr. Sibley filled 
various public stations during his long residence here — the 
last, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court. 

Stephen Mack was the first American merchant in 
Detroit ; he commenced business here in 1799. He was a 
captain in the Michigan Legion, commanded by Major 
James Witherell, in the war of 1812. 

John Francis Hamtramck, a distinguished ofiicer of the 
Revolution — Colonel of the 1st Regiment U. S. Infantry — 
was the first Commandent of Detroit and its dependencies 
after its occupation by the United States. He was appointed 
by President John Adams in 1799. He died April 11, 
1803, and was buried in Ste. Anne's Church Cemetery. 
His remains were removed several years ago and now repose 
in Mt. Elliott Cemetery. 

On the 18th of January, 1799, the Queen's birthday 
was celebrated in Sandwich, with a grand hal para^ at 
night, which was attended, on invitation, by the officers of 
the Fort and many citizens of Detroit. 



SKETCH KS OF DETKOIT. 39 

At a session of the Legislature ol" the Northwest Terri- 
tory lield at Chillicothe. in the winter of 1801-2, the 
Town of Detroit was incorporated with a Board of 
Trustees. 

By an act of Congress passed in 1804, section 16, of 
the public lands, in eacli township was reserved for the 
use of schools within the same, and a township in each 
of the districts afterwards forming Michigan, Indiana and 
Illinois, for seminaries of learning. 

For a detailed history the reader is referred to Mrs. 
Sheldon's " Early History of Michigan," Judge Campbell's 
" Political History of Michigan," and Farmer's forthcom- 
ing "Illustrated History of Michigan." 

THE TEKBITORY OF MICHIGAN 

was created by an act of Congress passed January 11th, 
1805, to take effect June SOtli of that year, with Detroit 
as the seat of government, and the ordinances of 1787 
and 1789 as the charter of tiie Territory. William Hull, 
a distinguished officer of the Revolution from Massachu- 
setts, was appointed governor, and Augustus B. Wood- 
ward, Frederick Bates and John Griffin, judges. 

On tlie 11th of June, 1805, the day before the arrival 
of the governor and judges, the town of Detroit was 
entirely destroyed by lire, and instead of finding a nour- 
ishing town enjoying a lucrative and remunerative Indian 
trade, they found only smoking ruins. The town destroyed 
was compactly built within pickets, covering four blocks 
of the present city, between Griswold and Wayne streets, 
and Larned and Woodbridge streets. The fort and bar- 
racks on the rising ground or second terrace outside of 
the palisades, afforded an asylum for the governor and 
suite. Along the present line of Randolph street from 
the river to the Savoyard creek a strip of land, an arpent 
in width, had been taken from the JBrush farm, and sold 



40 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

in lots to parties who had constructed thereon a row of 
better class dwellings. Here and among the hospitable 
farmers on either shore of the strait, many with children, 
the sick and aged found refuge, while on the common or 
"King's Domain," not allowed to be built upon, between 
Griswold and Randolpii streets, the greater numbers of 
the suddenly impoverished inhabitants, constructed rude 
huts of brushes, bark and such materials as they could 
find, which afforded them shelter until more substantial 
houses were provided, which was done before the rigor of 
winter set in, Joseph Campau at once proceeded to erect 
on the foundation of his old homestead, the house torn down 
in 1879 on Jefferson avenue. Peter Andrain, secretary of 
the Territory, also at once rebuilt. Many other dwellings 
and business places were soon built. There was much 
suffering among those who had lost their all. 

The accompanying maj) of the old Town of Detroit 
was drawn by Thomas Smith, surveyor, in 1796. 

In 1842 Cornelius O'Flynn and Bela Hubbard were 
apj)ointed commissioners to adjust claims to lots in the 
old town at the time it was burned, and other purposes, 
by the Comni^on Council, sitting as a land board, under an 
act of Congress. To enable them to locate the precise 
site occupied by the old town, according to the sniweys 
of Thomas Smith, fortunately two points still remained 
intact. These were the foundations of the jail on Wayne 
street, and the Joseph Campau house on Jefferson avenue. 
From these they were enabled to project the Smith map 
on the map of the new city, laid out by the Covernoi' and 
Judges, as shown in the engraving. 

The old town was 

Entirely Destroyed by Fire 
June 11, 1805. Shortly after tiie catastrophe Congress pass- 
ed an act directing the Governor and Judges of the Terri- 
tory of Michigan to lay out a new town. They completed 









-fM, 



:St 



Mit 



HlG 



Am 






Hs 



*V"^-^. 



Vft,YI\Xl\1L Kvl^. 



Defmtin1796. 

References. 

A. Fort PoncKartrain. 

B. Powder Magazine. 

C. King's Palace. 

D. Guard House. 

E. Jail. 

F. Catholic CKurch. 

G. Fire started burning the 

town June ii, 1805. 
H. Birth place of Rev. Leon- 
ard Bacon, D.D., of New 
Haven, Conn. 

Present Streets. 




MAP OF THE OLD TOWN OF DETROIT. 
Projected on the Present Map of the City. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 43 

their labor, and adopted the new plan in 1807, and they 
gave to owners of land in the old town an equivalent in 
land in the new, and to each male inhabitant, twenty-one 
years of age at the time of the fire, a lot containing six 
thousand square feet. 

As shown, the old town covered the site between Gris- 
wold and Cass streets, and from the river to Lamed street, 
and the fort the rise of ground between Congress and 
Lafayette streets and Griswold and Wayne streets. As a 
precaution against surprise by Indians no buildings were 
allowed to be constructed near the stockade inclosing the 
town, which was constructed of oak and cedar pickets from 
twelve to fifteen feet high; between the stockade — Gris- 
wold street — and the Brush farm on the east was an open 
common called the King's domain, and on the west the ffar- 
risen fields. 

KOKT PONTCHARTEAIN, 

Shown in the engraving, constructed by the French Govern- 
ment in 1701, and which still remained at tlie time of the con- 
spiracy of Pontiac, in 1763, was demolished before the revo- 
lution of 1776, when in 1778 the British government con- 
structed Fort Lernoult. After the war of 1812 it was named 
Fort Shelby, in honor of Governor Shelb}^, of Kentucky. 
Previous to the construction of this fort the citadel shown in 
the plan was picketed in and contained ofiicers' quarters and 
barracks sufficient to contain from three hundred to four 
hundred men ; a provision store, hospital and guard house ; 
over the gates of the town were block houses, each of wiiich 
had four guns (six pounders). There were besides two six- 
gun batteries fronting the river and in parallel direction 
with the block houses. Fort Shelby was being razed when 
the writer came here in 1827. 

King's Wharf, shown in the map near the foot of Wayne 
street, consisted of a crib of logs filled in with stone and 



44 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

gravel, and was about one hundred and fifty feet from the 
shore witli which it was connected by a bridge or plank-way. 
It was the only wharf in front of the city as late as 181 B. 
When the writer came here in 1S27, the sloop of war Ghent, 
the supply ship to Perry's fleet, was sunken and i-otting 
alongside the wharf, which was then known as the Public 
Wharf. Mr. Oliver Newberry purchased it from the United 
States and built a solid earth wharf there. Near the public 
wharf there was a small store-house belonging to Henry J. 
Hunt, which was the only building that escaped the con- 
flagration, and it was the last remnant of the old town. It 
was taken down 1830. The brick store-house of the United 
States at the foot of Wayne Street was taken down in 1832. 

THE ORIGINAL FREEHOLDERS. 

That part of the town not required for public use was 
subdivided into fifty-nine lots. The names of the free- 
holders in the old town were: Askin, Abbott. McDonald, 
McDougall, Meldrum, Parke, Grant, Chagrin, McGregor, 
Campau, McKea, Oadney, Macomb, Roe, Howard, Trem- 
ble, Sparkin, Leith, Williams, Ridley, Frazer, Haines, Dol- 
son, Jayer, Lefoy, Thebauld, Duhamel, St. Cosmo, Belanger, 
Cote, LaFleur, Scott, LaFontain, Bird, Starling, Andrews, 
Harfoy and Ford. 

'' THE king's PALACE." 

The commandant's headquarters, noted in the engraving, 
was a square two-story wooden house, the only one in the 
])lace, the others being one story with steep roofs and dor- 
mer windows. In the rear of this, near the water-side, was 
a Council House, for the purpose of holding counsel with 
the Indians. The Catholic Church, noted in the engraving 
was 60x40 feet, having had two steeples and two bells. It 
was erected in 1723. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 45 

THE STREETS IN THE OLD TOWN 

Were fifteen and twenty feet wide. The widest was St. 
Ann, running nearly on a line of the present Jefferson 
Avenue. A carriage-way encircled the town just inside the 
palisades, called Chemin du Ronde. This was twenty feet 
wide. Sidewalks there were none. 

AFTER THE FIRE, 

Hon. James May, father of the late Mrs. A. D. Eraser, 
gathered the stones of which the chimneys in the houses 
were built — there being no brick made here — and built a 
stone house with them, which, in 1836, was used as a hotel, 
called the "Mansion House." It was the leading hotel of 
the city and headquarters for army officers, government 
officials, and leading Democratic politicians. It was situated 
on the north side of Jefferson Avenue, west of Cass street. 
Judge May was an Englishman who came here a young man 
in 1778 — now a century gone. He was Chief Justice of the 
Court of Common Pleas, established here immediately after 
General Wayne took possession of the country, under Jay's 
treaty in 1796. At the surrender of General Hull in 1812, 
when the American flag was hauled down at the fort, he got 
possession of it and kept it secreted until the approach of 
Harrison's army, the following year, when he hoisted it as a 
signal that the British had evacuated. Judge May carried 
more weight on the bench than any Judge of modern times, 
except, perhaps. Senator- Davis, of Illinois. His weight was 
340 pounds. 

THE " RIVER SAVOYARD " 

Was but a large creek, draining the common and adjacent 
farms on the east. It discharged into the Detroit River near 
the east line of the Jones farm. Canoes and flat-boats passed 
up this stream to the farms on the east. Good fishing along 
its banks extended far up into the farms, but the subterra- 



46 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

nean creeks — sewers — have done the work for the Savoyard. 
Not a vestige of it now remains ; the willows that lined its 
banks have all disappeared, and the last of the sycamores 
that marked its course was cnt down on Shelby street a few 
years ago, and the only known relic of by-gone old Detroit 
is the piece of flag staff of Fort Lenioult deposited in the 
Public Library, Peter Bertlielet, a descendant of Savoy, at 
an early day, had a pottery on the river bank at the outlet 
of the " Savoyard." He bore the nick-name " Savoyard,"' 
hence the name given the creek. Mi-. Bertlielet had a num- 
ber of heavy cast-iron plate stoves, brought by him from 
Montreal, which he hired out from three to ten dollars per 
winter. He accumulated a large estate in Detroit, and 
afterwards removed to Montreal, where he died about fifty 
years ago, the wealthiest man in Canada. 

Hon. Levi E. Dolson, still a resident here, when a child 
was rescued from drowning in the " Savoyard," into which 
lie had fallen on Griswold, at Congress street. 

The late Peter Desnoyers was the last living witness of 
tlie conflagration. 

The Catholics had sustained a Mission in Detroit since 
1701. Its church, St. Ann's, was the only house of worship 
liere at the time of the Are. In the new plan of the city 
the church site was found to be near the center of Jefferson 
avenue, west of Griswold street. It therefore became 
necessary to obtain a new location, and the Governor and 
Judges, in 18<)6, authorized the church to be built in the 
the center of the little military square on " Section No. 1," 
its present locality. They also, on the petitions of Angelique 
Campau and Elizabeth Williams and Rev, Gabriel Richard, 
donated a lot for a new school, and one for a boys' academy. 
In 1807 they granted a lot on which to build a Protestant 
Church, on the northeast corner of Woodward Avenue and 
Larned street, and a house of worship was erected there, 
known as the First Presbyterian Church. Rev. John Mon- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 47 

teith was the first Protestant clergyman employed. The 
congregation composed all the different Protestant denomi- 
nations then represented in the city. No distinctive creed 
was adopted. Some years later the lot was divided and the 
Episcopalians built the old St. Paul's Church on the north 
part, both of which have long since given place to mercan- 
tile structures. Donation lots were granted to the Metho- 
dist and Baptist Churches, and to the Mechanics' Society — 
and burial grounds to the Catholic Church. 

In 1807 the inhabited part of the town was enclosed in a 
a strong stockade by order of Governor Hull, in conse- 
quence of manifested disaffection among the Shawnees, 
Wyandottes and other Indian tribes in the vicinity, who 
threatened the destruction of the city. During that year 
Governor Hull effected a treaty with all the various tribes 
except the Shawnees. 

SOCIAL LIFE IN THE EARLY DAYS. 

In social life the French characteristics predominated. 
Judge James May, an Englishman who resided here from 
1778 until he died in 1830, said, " The citizens all lived 
then like one family (referring to the time he came), had 
Detroit assemblies, where ladies never went without being 
in their silks. The people dressed very riclily. Assemblies 
were once a week, and sometimes once a fortnight. Dining 
parties were frequent, and they drank their wine freely." 

After the day's business was over in summer the older 
citizens spent their evenings in social visiting, and by the 
younger in paddling their own canoes on the blue strait, by 
moonlight promenading on the green lawns beneath the ex- 
tensive orchards of pear-trees, or along the gravel beach, or 
in dancing at the farm houses, by turn, which fronted the 
river, not more than four arpents apart, from the city to 
Grosse Point. A fiddle was in every house, and music 



48 



SKT5TCHES OF DETROIT. 



would soon bring sufficient numbers together for a dance any 
pleasant evening. 

The foHovving order was recently found among the papers 
of the late patriarch, Joseph Oampan. 

January 17, 1807. 
Mr. Campau will please tuinisli for the Grand Marie Parly on Satur- 
day next, provided there is carioling, a qr. of roast beef and a pair of 

fowls ready for the spit. 

Major Ernest. 

James Aijuott. 

James Abbott was brotlier-in-law of Gen. Whistler, LT. S. 
A., and postmaster at Detroit for a quarter century until 
1832, and manager of the American Fur Company's busi- 
ness in Michigan for same time. The following description 
of the " Grand Marie Party " is from Mrs. Sheldon's His- 
tory : 

••'In winter, when a vast sea of ice separated them from 
their eastern neighbors, and their Indian allies were far in 
the depths of the forest engaged in the chase, the denizens 
of the fort and of the crowded town gave themselves up to 
unrestrained pleasure seeking. Three or four miles above 
the city was a large marsh called by the French 

Le Grand Marais. 

It extended down to the river brink, and when the 
autumnal rains came the entire surface was submerged, and 
the wintry frosts soon converted it into a miniature sea of 
glass. In the absence of sufficient snow for sleighing, the 
Grand Marais, which could be readily gained by the icy 
nuirgin of the river, was a favorite drive for the citizens; 
and late in autumn the young men of the town would erect 
on its border a long one-story building, with stone chim- 
neys at each extremity, and furnished with rude tables and 
benches. 

Every Saturday morning during the long cold winter, 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 49 

carioles, filled with gay young men and laughing girls might 
be seen gliding over the glassy surface of the ice-bound 
river, or, if there was snow, flying along the river road, 
where now extends the broad and beautiful Jetferson avenue, 
each finally landing its freight of life and beauty at the 

Hotel Du Gratid Marais. 

The box seats of the cariole were always well filled with 
mysterious baskets and packages, which were speedily trans- 
ferred to the aforesaid long tables, and soon the rattling of 
the dinner service was heard in the lulls of the gay chatter 
of the Fi'ench girls ; and the aroma of the fragrant Mocha 
escaped into the frosty air in delicate smoke wreaths — an in- 
cense of anticipation to the coming repast. As soon as 
the dinner was over, the tables and benches were removed, 
and dancing commenced, which continued until the boom- 
ing of the evening gun at the fort warned the merry party 
that 

" The evening shades might be but vantage ground 
For some ill foe." 

The next day, Sunday, after morning mass, the gentlemen 
were accustomed to resort to the Grand Marais and spend 
the day in carousal and feasting on the remains of yesterday's 
store. Sleigh riding on the ice, and ball and parties in 
town, filled up the week's interim. The summer's earnings 
scarce sufficed for the winter's waste. 

THE LrrTLE CHURCH JJY THE RIVER, 

where morning mass was attended, was a small, wooden 
chapel close by the river side, on the James Campau farm, 
near where now is the foot of Dubois street ; and it was the 
only edifice dedicated for divine worship on the strait 
— d'' Etroit. St. Anne's, in the old town, was burned in the 
conflagration two years before, and the new St. Anne's had 
not yet been built. Of this chapel the late Col. Wilkins — 



50 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

" W. D. W." — wrote : It was built by one of the earliest 
French settlers, I believe by an ancestor of the late Joseph 
and Barnabas Campan, in fulfilment of a vow made to the 
Blessed Virgin during a storm on his voyage from Nor- 
mandy to Canada. It stood on a solid oak frame and foun- 
dation, though with crumbling, weather-beaten sides, with 
moss-covered belfry, with the tiny but musical bell that 
came from La Belle France^ and with massive iron handles 
to the double leaves of the door, each bearing the fleur 
de lis, proud badge of the Bourbons. It was here that the 
adventurous voyageurs and coxiTeiirs des hois heard their 
last mass and took farewell of friends and relatives and 
gave the parting kiss to one who was dearer than either, 
before departing on their long and perilous canoe voyages 
over stormy lakes, through unknown streams, amidst dense 
forests, through savage bands, more inhospitable than wood, 
lake or storm, to the far, far distant La Pointe, or Lake 
of the Woods, or Mississippi's sources, or wherever the 
(piest of commerce led their dauntless, patient, merry hearts. 
Here the gay voyageur, i"eturning with halloo and song 
and gunfire from his long and perilous journey, decked 
with red sash and beadwoi-k, and passing rich from the 
perils and profits of journey and chase, was wedded to the 
bright-eyed demoiselle who had been patiently waiting for 
him in the high-roofed one-story farm-house by the bank 
of the stream ; and here they drove in gay procession 
through the narrow streets of La '•'•Fort " to display the 
gallantry of the groom and the beauty and fine attire of 
the bride. It was a most interesting little building, almost 
the only one we had left in historic old Detroit, city 
of three dominions and five wars, hallowed with the most 
romantic and sentimental associations. But it stood in the 
way of a projected saw-mill, the few feet of space occupied 
by its venerable and sacred walls were needed for lumber- 
piles, and in 1848 the little church disappeared, and I pre- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 53 

sume its existence has been forgotten, except by the older 
inhabitants, among whom I am beginning to class myself. 
It wonld have cost bnt little to have preserved the little 
time-honored chapel, and I think what a precious relic it 
wonld be now." ^^' * * '' It seems a pity that 
we have not a little I'everence for the olden time in 
Detroit, or, rather, that we have not had it before ; for 
except the " old Joseph Campau honse " on Jefferson 
avenue, all the buildings Mdiich might have recalled the 
joyous, adventurous, romantic age of the French hahiian 
and the British garrison and trader are gone." Since the 
foregoing was written the " old Joseph Campau house," and 
the " Cass house," constructed b}' Cadillac, the founder of 
Detroit, 1701, liave been torn down. Not a dollar could be 
raised or appropriated to save these ancient relics, although 
public appeals were made to procure their removal to the 
city park and put in a state of preservation to be used as store- 
houses for a museum of relics of the past, present and future 
ages. The oldest house now remaining within the city 
limits, and probably in the state, is the '' Moran farm- 
house," between Woodbridge and Franklin and Hastings 
and St. Antoine streets, which was built on that spot by 
Pierre Moran, grandfather of the late Judge Charles Moran, 
about 1750. It is the only house remaining from behind 
which the Indians fired on the retreating British soldiers 
after their surprise and desperate and bloody strife with 
Pontiac's warriors at Parent Creek — Bloody Run — in 1763. 
Another ancient structure stands on the margin of the river 
east of the residence of W. B. Wesson, Esq. It was built 
by the grandfather of our esteemed townsman, Alexander 
Chapoton, Esq., in 1802, for John Francis Hamtramck, the 
first military commandant of Detroit after its cession to the 
United States, appointed by John Adams, the second Presi- 
dent of the United States, in 1799. The gigantic elm in 
front of tlie house on the bank of the Detroit river, ante- 



54 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

dates its existence. General Hamtramck was a distinguished 
officer of the American Revolution, coming from France 
with La Fayette. His remains repose in Mt. Elliott ceme- 
tery. James "Witherell, Territorial Judge, appointed by 
Jefferson in 1807, occupied the house with his family until 
1811. Later the Judge purchased a farm nearer the city, now 
far within the settled limits of the city, known as the " With- 
erell farm," where he resided until his death in 1838. 

TJw Last Relic of "La Fwt" 
i. e., Fort Pontchartrain, was a rust-eaten cannon, made of 
square, wrought-iron bars, and bound with bands of the 
same. It was found in moving earth from the site of the 
Fort in 1822, and dumped with the earth into a wharf being 
filled for John Roberts, between Bates and Randolph streets, 
which, by the way, was the first earth wharf made on the 
river front. 

THE ONLY RELIC OF FORT SHELBY, FORMERLY FORT LERNOULT, 

constructed by the British during the American Revolution, 
in 1778, is the ground end of the flagstaff of the fort, now 
deposited in the Public Library. It is Norway pine, about 
twelve inches in diameter, as now dressed for preservation. 
It was unearthed five years ago, while excavating for a base- 
ment to a residence on Fort street, at the point where the 
flagstaff of the fort stood, when it was broken off by the 
wind, some years before the fort was dismantled. 

The British kept a force of about 500 troops here during 
the Revolution, by whom this formidable earth fort was 
built. It was given the name of the commandant, which is 
in doubt. Mrs. Sheldon in her history has "Fort Le Noult," 
Judge Campbell "Foi-t Lernoult," and the late Judge James 
May, an Englishman, who was here at the time it was built, 
in his memorandum, speaks of " Major Leverault command- 
ing oflScer of the post, and its dependencies." 

Rev. Gabriel Richard, a priest of the order of St. Sulspice, 



> ? 



5 > -i 



>t3 h 



d I 




SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 57 

came here in 1798, as pastor of the old Catholic church of St. 
Anne, in the old town, which was burned in 1805. Shortly 
after he came he celebrated with the rites of the church, 
many marriages that had previously been performed civilly. 
In 1809 he brought here the first printing press in Michigan, 
and published a small gazette called the ''Michigan Essay ; 
or, Impartial Observer," and some religious and educational 
works. Father Kichard was a very public spirited citizen. 
The stone church of St. Anne constructed by him, towards 
the cost of which he appropriated his entire pay as a Member 
of Congress — to which he was elected in 1823 — still' remains a 
monument of his enterprise. He died of cholera in 1832. 
During his long residence of thirty-four years here, he had 
the respect and esteem of the entire community, Protestants 
as well as Catholics. At his funeral, notwithstanding the 
universal dread of tlie disease, the concoui'se of citizens M'as 
greater than the entire population of the city, so great was 
the number that came from the adjacent country. 

Judge Bates resigned in 1807, and James Witherell, a 
member of Congress from Vermont, a distinguished officer 
of the American Revolution, was appointed by Jefferson in 
his place. In the war of 1812, Judge Witherell was Major 
of the Michigan Legion. On the capitulation of Hull he 
was sent as a prisoner of war to Kingston, Canada, where he 
was paroled, and returning to Detroit resumed his seat on 
the bench. Under an act of Congress the court was reorgan- 
ized and Judge Witherell was the only one of the three judges 
reappointed, and he was made presiding judge, which posi- 
tion he held until 1828, when he was appointed Secretary of 
the Territory. Judge Witherell died January 0, 1838. The 
State Legislature and bar of the Supreme Court passed reso- 
lutions of respect to his memory, and both bodies attended 
his funeral. 

"Some when they die, die all; their mouldering clay 
Is but an emblem of their memories ; 
The space quite closed up thro' which they passed." 



58 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

But his son, Benj. F. H. Witherell, occupied very import- 
ant places in the affairs of the city and State, and was Judge 
of the Wayne Circuit Court at the time of his death in 1867, 
and liis grandson, Thomas W. Pahner, U. S. Senator from 
Michigan, made for himself a record which has given him 
ottieial position second only in the Federal Government. 

A7i Earthquake in Michigan. 

In 1812, in a letter to a friend in Yermont, Judge With- 
erell said : " On the morning of the 23d of January last at 
30 minutes past 8 o'clock, as I sat reading by the lire at Col. 
Watson's, I felt an unusal sensation. I thought that some- 
thing must be the matter with me. I felt an agitation that 
I could not account for. But I soon observed that the walls 
of the house were in motion, north and south. I got up, 
stepped to a bed-room door and asked my daughter if she 
perceived that the house trembled. She replied that she 
did, and thought that some one was shaking her bedstead. 
I then discovered that a small looking-glass which was hang- 
ing on the wall, was swinging to and fro several inches, and 
the shade trees in the yard were waving considerably north 
and south. Dr. Brown informed me that his stove rolled 
very much, and that a cradle was set to rocking smartly, 
though there was no one near it. A little girl who had 
crossed the lake in a vessel last fall, tottered about and called 
out, ' O, mother, we are in the vessel again.' 

" Cook's house shook more than most others, probably 
because it was higher, and the frame new and stronger. A 
Frenchman at Grosse Point says, that by the shock, his 
bowl of mush and milk was spilt. The ice in the river was 
split for several miles." 

This was the first earthquake in Michigan of which there 
is any I'ecord. There were no newspapers here at that time 
to chronicle the event. The next and last shock of earth- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 59 

quake felt here occurred in 1869, which was severe enough 
to crack the wall of a brick house on Jefferson avenue. 

In the same letter Judge Witherell gave the following- 
account of 

A DISTURBANCE IN THE WATERS OF ORCHARD LAKE. 

'' You will remember that there is a lake some thirty miles 
north of this towards Saginaw. It is several miles in cir- 
cumference and in it an island. There are no inhabitants 
near it except Indians, and they say that on the 17th of 
December last, the waters of the lake began to boil, bubble, 
foam and roll about as though they had been in a large ket- 
tle over a very hot fire, and that in a few minutes up came 
great numbers of turtles and hurried to the shore, upon 
which they had a great turtle feast." 

This lake must have been Orchard Lake, although then 
not so named. The whole interior of Michigan was then a 
wilderness in possession of the natives of the forest. 

DETROIT IN 1811. 

The accompanying engraving shows the progress made in 
rebuilding the city six years after it was destroyed by fire, 
and four years after the plat of the new town was adopted. 
It is from a painting 14x6 inches, drawn in water colors by 
George W. Whistler, son of the late Col Whistler, U. S. A., 
and brother of the late Mrs. James Abbott. It is a little 
boy's picture, drawn by him while attending school here. 
As a picture it has no value, but as a bit of history it is 
certainly interesting. In after years IVIr. Whistler graduated 
at West Point and became an engineer of considerable fame, 
and was at the head of the corps of engineers under the 
Russian Government, at the time of his death. 

The picture was found some years since among the effects 
of Col. John Kingsbury, commandant of the post at Detroit 
at that time, by his son, S. H. C. Kingsbury, residing in 



60 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Franklin, Conn., who wrote to the late A. D. Fraser that he 
had placed it in the hand of Charles I. Lanman, Esq., with the 
request " to send it to some one in Detroit, who would take 
care of it." Mr. Fraser placed the letter in my hands, when, 
as one of the curators of the Michigan Historical Society, I 
wrote to Hon. Charles Lanman, Washington City, requesting 
it or a copy of it for the society, who at once forwarded it 
to me to be presented to the Historical Society. No meet- 
ing of the society having been held since, I take the liberty 
of reproducing it here. . 

The picture gives a view from the river of the rear of the 
buildings constructed on Jefferson avenue, between the east 
and west lines of the city. Many of the buildings are recog- 
nized by old residents, who point out the residences of Gov- 
ernor Hull, on the extreme east, next of Barnabe Campau, 
Judge Chipman, Judge Whipple, Joseph Cainpaa, Conrad 
Seek, Capt. Dodemead, Roby, etc., and the Truax House, 
on the extreme west, occupied by Col. Kingsbury as his 
head-quarters while in command here. The Joseph Com- 
pau house shown in the picture, was the first constructed 
after the fire. It was built on the foundation of the i-esidence 
of Mr. Campau that was burned, which foundation was laid 
in 1750, on wliich was built the officer's mess-house of Fort 
Pontchartrain. Mr. Campau became the possessor of it in 
1796, and lived there during his life. This house was torn 
down in 1881 to give place to the live-story iron-front store 
erected on its site by his son-in-law, Francis Palms. The 
Campau house was a frame building 45x50 feet, two stories 
high, with Mansard roof and dormer windows. At the time 
of the discovery of the country, in 1610, the site was covered 
by an Indian village, by a tribe known as the Iroquois, and 
in 1701 by Fort Pontchartrain. 

The Governor Hull house, shown in the picture, was 
built in 1807. It M'as the first brick house built in 
Michigan. It was burned in the o-reat fire of 1848. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 63 

The small building near the long wharf was the only 
house that escaped the conflagration of 1805. 

The site of the town burned covered the west half shown 
in the engraving, on the first terrace, extending from the 
river to what now is Larned street. Fort Shelby and the 
cantonment buildings were back of the town, on the second 
terrace, across the " River Savoyard," and west of Gi. wold 
street. 

WAR OF 1812. 

In anticipation of war with Great Britain, General Hull, 
Governor of Michigan, was appointed commander-in-chief of 
all the forces of the Northwest. An army of twelve hundred 
men, which was considerably augmented by volunteers, was 
collected at Dayton, Ohio. This force was divided into 
three regiments, commanded by Colonels McArthur, Cass 
and Finelly. To which was added the 4th U. S, Infantry, 
commanded by Colonel Miller, made famous by his modest 
" I'll try, sir." 

This army left Dayton for Detroit about the middle of 
June, when after cutting their way through a trackless for- 
est and enduring many hardships it arrived on the 5th of 
July. War was declared by Congress on the 18th of June, 
1812, and the first news reached Hull on his march near 
Monroe, on the 2d of July. A vessel conveying to Detroit 
a few sick soldiers, hospital stores, Gen. Hull's baggage and 
many valuable documents, was captured by the British on 
entering the river opposite Fort Maiden, the astonished crew 
being informed that war was actually declared. 

Four days after his arrival in Detroit, Gen. Hull received 
an order from the Secretary' of War to take possession of 
Maiden, if consistent with the safety of his own posts. Ac- 
cordingly three days later, on the 12th day of July, he cross- 
ed the Detroit River and encamped at Sandwich. After 
several days of inactivity weary of the monotony of the 



64 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

camp, Col. Cass with about 280 men left the camp to reco- 
noiter the ground toward Maiden. At the bridge crossing 
Canard Creek, four miles from Maiden, he met and had a 
skirmish Math a small force of British troops ; the enemy 
were routed, with a loss of ten men. Col. Cass took and 
held possession of the bridge. After nearly a month's in- 
activity in camp at Sandwich with a brave, vigorous army, 
chafing under restraint, General Hull, intimidated by the 
hostile manifestations of Indians, and the report that a large 
force of British troops would soon arrive at Maiden, recross- 
ed the river to Detroit August 9th, without attacking Fort 
Maiden, and on the 15th ingloriously surrendered to the 
British without firing a gun. The circumstances of the sur- 
render are so well known they need not be repeated here. 
It was not what was expected of General Hull, for, as an 
ofiicer in the army of Washington, he had distinguished 
himself by his bravery. 

The late Judge B. F. H. Witherell, in a paper read before 
the Historical Society, in 1859, in speaking of Gov. Hull, 
said : " The name and memory of Gen. Hull have been 
loaded with obloquy and reproach. In my boyhood I knew 
him well. His appearance was venerable and dignified ; his 
heart was the seat of kindness ; he was unquestionably an 
honest man. The 'old settlers' of Michigan, those who 
knew him well, and who suffered most from the last great 
error of his life, acquit him of the charge of treason. They 
believe that age, and perhaps premature decay, had un- 
nerved him ; that the responsibility of the command of the 
army and the charge of the civil government were too heavy 
for him ; but that he carried as honest a heart in his bosom 
as he did when he followed ' Mad Anthony ' at the head of 
his columns, over the ramparts of Stony Point." Tlie com- 
piler of this will add that when he came here about fifteen 
years after the capitulation, he heard the matter discussed 
by citizens, among whom were those engaged in the defense 



SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 65 

of the town, and tlie prevailing; opinion was in accord with 
that of Jndge Witherell. 

Battle of Wyandotte. 

Sliortly after the declaration of war, on the 5th of Au- 
gust, Major YanHorn, a brave officer of the Ohio troops who 
were en route to Detroit, was surprised and defeated with 
some loss, at Brownstown, about sixteen miles below Detroit 
by British troops and Indians, and communication with 
Ohio was completely cut off. Gen. Hull, seeing the abso- 
lute necessity of opening communication with Monroe, 
where Major Thomas Rowland and Capt. Brush had arrived 
with a small reinforcement and supplies, ordered Colonel 
James Miller to march with a force of 000 men and open 
communication. Col. Miller at once formed his troops on 
Jefferson avenue in front of the arsenal and thus addressed 
them: "Soldiers, we are now going to meet the enemy, 
and to beat them ; the reverses of the 5th (VanHorn's de- 
feat) must be repaired ; the blood of our brethren, spilt by 
the savages, nmst be avenged. I shall lead you. You shall 
not disgrace yourselves or me. Every man who shall leave 
the ranks or fall back without orders will be instantly put to 
death. I charge the officers to execute this order. My 
brave soldiers, you will add another victory to that of Tip- 
pecanoe, another laurel to that gained on the Wabash last 
fall. If there is now a man in the ranks of the detachment 
who fears to meet the enemy let him fall out and stay be- 
hind." 

A general "hurrah" followed and the detachment then 
wheeled by sections into open column and marched off in 
high spirits, reaching and crossing the River Rouge that 
night, where they remained until next morning, when they 
early resumed the march, and in the afternoon found the 
enemy entrenched at Wyandotte, 10 miles below Detroit, 
(the old home of the Indian chief, Walk-in-the-water) and at 



Q6 SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 

once engaged them, and a severe battle ensued. The line 
advanced and received the fire of the whole front and left 
flank of the enemy, when the savages gave a tremendous 
war whoop, in which they were joined by their allies, and a 
despei-ate conflict ensued. From the cracking of individual 
])ieces, it changed to alternate volleys and then to one con- 
tinued sound of wavering roll. The discharge of the six- 
pounder, of Col. Miller's occasionally burst on the air. Col. 
Miller, riding along the line cheering on his men, saw the 
necessity and gave the order '' charge with your bayonets," 
when, with a loud hurrah, in double-quick time his troops 
marched directly into the enemj^'s breast-works. Major 
Antoine Dequindre, an enterprising merchant in Detroit, 
with his Michigan volunteers and a company of Ohio volun- 
teers, with the utmost intrepidity carried the breast-works, 
Dequindre being the first man to mount it, when the enemy 
broke and fled — the savages to the woods, while the British 
troops regained their boats and fled to Fort Maiden, at the 
mouth of the rivei', in Canada. Major Muir, a gallant and 
experienced soldier who had long commanded at Maiden, 
commanded the enemy's forces which consisted of two 
hundred regulars, one hundred militia and four hundred and 
fifty Indians, in all seven hundred and fifty men. They 
had the advantages of munition and a strong position. Te- 
cumseh, Walk-in-the-water, Mainpot (lame hand), and Split- 
log, and chiefs of lesser note, led the savages. 

f/udge Woodward — Surrender of Detroit and Massacre at 

Chicago. 

On the 6tli of January, 1813, the inhabitants of Detroit 
presented Honorable Augustus B. Woodward, one of the 
judges of the Territory of Michigan, an address, expressing 
their acknowledgment and admiration, for his " patriotic 
and uniform conduct, since the surrender (on the 16th 



SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 67 

August last) of this Territory to His Majesty's arras ; in in- 
terceding and protecting us suffering citizens and saving our 
lives and persons from the victorious and insulting savage ; 
in preserving the remnants of our property from pillage, 
and in aiding the means of departing those who unshed to 
go and find tlie standard of their country, and also for the 
spirit of humanity which jou have displayed towards the 
surviving citizens of the unhappy and terrible disaster which 
took place on the 15th of August last in, the vicinity of 
Chicago — in procuring the means of preserving those un- 
happy survivors from the distressing calamities which 
environed them, and for their restoration to their friends." 
The Pottawatomie Indians massacred thirty-eight men, 
two women and twelve children, who had left and aband- 
oned Fort Dearborn (Chicago) and taken up their line of 
march for Fort Wayne under an escort of Pottawatomies, 
who, after promising to escort them to Fort Wayne and 
receiving presents of all the Government property in the 
Fort, proved treacherous and attacked the party within a 
mile and a half of the Fort, killing about two-thirds of the 
party, when the remainder surrendered. The prisoners 
were divided among the different bands of Indians, who in 
time reached Detroit. The Commandant, Capt. Heald, and 
wife, were wounded, as also were Lieut, and Mrs. Helm. 

Battle of Lake Erie. 

September 10th, 1813, the hostile fleets of England and 
the United States on Lake Erie met at the head of the lake 
above Put-in-Bay Island, and a severe battle ensued. The 
fleet bearing the red cross of England consisting of six ves- 
sels, carrying sixty-four guns, under command of the veteran 
Commodore Barclay, and the fleet bearing the " broad strijies 
and bright stars " of the United States, consisting of nine ves- 
sels, carrying fifty-foui' guns, under command of the young 
and inexperienced but brave Commodore Perry. The result 



68 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

of this conllict was made known to the world in tlie follow- 
ing dispatch, written at -t o'clock p. m., of that day : 

Dear General: 

We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, 
one schooner and one sloop, 

With esteem, etc., 

O. H. PERRY. 
General William Jones. 

This dispatch was sent to General Harrison, who with his 
array was near Sandusky, to be forwarded to Washington. 

Perry's Heet was used to convey Hai'rison's army into 
Canada, where they were landed about four miles below 
Maiden on the 27th of September, and at once marched into 
Maiden and found it deserted by its defenders. Maiden 
was evacuated on the 18th, at which the Indians were 
greatly enraged at the cowardice of Proctor. Tecumseh 
compared him to a fat cur, sneaking off with his tail be- 
tween his legs, after making a great show of courage. 
Proctor pacified them by promising to make a stand at Mo- 
ravian Town on the river Thames. General Proctor was at 
Sandwich when Harrison entered Maiden, and at once re- 
treated with the Detroit garrison. On the 28th of Septem- 
ber the American army reached Sandwich, 18 miles from 
Maiden, opposite Detroit. General Duncan McArthur, who 
was with Hull's army at the time of the surrender, at once 
crossed over the river to Detroit and took possession of the 
fort which the British troops had hastily left the day before. 
Perry's fleet arrived the same day. On the 29th General 
Harrison issued a proclamation, restoring the civil authority 
as it had been before the surrender. Colonel Richard M. 
Johnson's mounted Kentucky riflemen, who came by land 
from Sandusky, arrived on the 30th and crossed into Canada 
the next day. Colonel McArthur's command was left at 
Detroit. Colonel Cass's brigade was left at Sandwich, and 
General Harrison, with a force of about 3,500, on the 2d of 



SKETCHES OP DETROIT. 69 

October, pursued after Proctor. Commodore Perry and 
Colonel Cass acted as volunteer aids to the General. The 
smaller vessels of the fleet sailed up the Thames. On the 
5th Proctor was overtaken at Moravian Town on the Thames, 
where he had made a stand and was prepared for battle. 
The mounted riflemen at once dashed through the British 
line and turned it, and in less than ten minutes the whole 
force was captured except General Proctor and 17 officers 
and 239 men who escaped. A farmer in the vicinity re- 
ported that General Proctor passed his house on his retreat 
two hours ahead of his soldiers. His brave ally, Tecumseh, 
was shot and killed by Colonel Johnson while wounded and 
held down by his horse which had fallen on him, when he 
(Tecumseh) was approaching to tomahawk him. On the 
7th Governor Shelby was put in command of the army and 
General Harrison left for Detroit. 

Colonel Lewis Cass 

was appointed Provisional Governor of the Territory of 
Michigan by Harrison on the 14th of October, and subse- 
quently was appointed by the President permanent Gov- 
ernor, from which time until the war of the rebellion he 
was officially connected with the Government. During 
which time, embracing a period of half a century, he held 
more important official positions in the Federal Government 
than any other citizen ever held. First appointed in 1807 
by Jefferson, U. S. Marshal of the State of Ohio, Colonel of 
Ohio Yolunteers at the commencement of the war of 1812, 
and promoted by Madison to the rank of Brigadier-General 
in the regular army in 1813. His home was in Detroit dur- 
ing his nearly fifty years of continuous service as an officer 
in the army, Governor of the Territory of Michigan, Secre- 
tary of War, Minister to France, United States Senator and 
Secretary of State of the United States. He was born at 



70 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Exeter, New Hampshire, October 9, 1782. He died at 
Detroit, June 17, 1866. 

INLAND NAVIGATION FKOM THE LAKES TO THE SEA. 

At a meeting of the Governor and Judges held in Janu- 
ary, 1812, a committee reported as follows: "Whereas, the 
Commissioners of Internal Navigation in the State of New 
York, have addressed to the Governor and Judges of the 
Territory of Michigan, a communication i-elative to a canal 
in the State of New York, which being considered. Resolved 
unanimously, that in the opinion of the undersigned the 
canal contemplated by the Commissioners of Internal Navi- 
gation in the State of New York from Black Rock to Rome, 
would not be so desirable as a canal around the cataract of 
Niagara, another by the falls of the Oswego." The resolu- 
tion was adopted, and a copy transmitted in a letter signed 
by Reuben Atwater, Acting Governor, and Judges A. B. 
Woodward and James Witherell, addressed to Governor 
Morris, Dewitt Clinton, William North, Thomas Eddy, 
Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton, Esquires, Com- 
missioners of Internal Navigation of the State of New 
York. 

The idea of a water communication from the lakes to the 
Atlantic Ocean had been under consideration for many years 
before. To Christopher Colles, an Irishman by birth, left 
an orphan at an early age, a protege of Richard Pocoke, the 
famous oriental traveler, belongs the credit of having been 
not only the first to propose, but the first to bring before 
the public in a practical form the feasibility and vast 
national advantage of a system of water communication 
which should unite the great lakes and their boundless tribu- 
tary territory with the Atlantic Ocean. Immediately on the 
close of the American Revolution, in which he took a con- 
spicuous part, he devoted his whole attention to his favorite 
project of internal improvements which engaged his atfcen- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 71 

tion before tlie war. In 1773 he lectured at the Exchange 
in jSTew York on the advantages of loch navigation. In 
1784 he addressed a memorial to the Legislature of New- 
York proposing a plan for inland navigation on the Mo- 
hawk river. In 1785 the Legislature voted him "£50 to aid 
in preliminary surveys,^'' and by indefatigable efforts he 
secured the introduction of "An act for improving the navi- 
gation of the Mohawk river, Wood creek and the Onondaga 
river, with the view of opening an inland navigation to 
Oswego, and for extending the same if practicable to Lake 
Erie.'^ 

Here we find the great enterprise, later known as the 

Erie Canal, 

taking definite shape, although it was forty years after 
before it was consummated. The canal was commenced in 
1817 and completed and brought into service in 1825, and it 
was an important agent in promoting settlement in the lake 
country, and increasing the commerce of the lakes. The 
journey to the West was made easy and economical, and the 
country began to settle very fast. Prior to which the steam- 
boat Superior was the only one on the lakes. The Henry 
Clay and Pioneer were added that year, forming a tri- 
weekly line from Buffalo to Detroit, when the population 
of Detroit, which although a century and a quarter old, did 
not exceed 1,500 souls, rapidly increased in the next ten 
years to 5,000, and it has since doubled with every decade 
to this time. 

An Irishman first proposed uniting the fresh water of 
Lake Erie with the salt water of the Atlantic, and Irishmen 
made the canal, therefore E^'ie Go Brine would have been 
an appropriate name for the big ditch. 

In 1814 Pe-to-big, a Chippewa Indian, killed a Mr. Kacine 
on the Eiver St. Clair. The late Judge B. F. Witherell, 
about 40 years after it occurred, saw a daughter of Racine, 



72 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Mrs. St. Pierre, and asked her if she had seen tlie Indian 
Pe-to-big since the death of her father. She replied that 
about twenty years after the murder she saw an Indian com- 
ing towards her home, with liis blanket doubled np like a 
pack, and hanging over his shoulder, apparently tilled. He 
entered the house, threw his blanket on the floor, and opened 
it, displaying his calicoes and other goods which he had 
received at Maiden, and said : "White squaw, you not know 
me ; I Pe-to-big, me kill your father many, many moons 
since. Now (pointing to the goods) take your pay for your 
father." She, of course, refused, and Pe-to-big, throwing 
his blanket over his shoulder, again went oft", saying, " White 
squaw very bad squaw — always mad ; she take no pay for 
her father." 

THE FIRST PUBLIC MARKET. 

The iirst public market house was built in 1816 by Capt. 
Benjamin Woodworth, brother of Samuel Woodworth, the 
printer poet, author of ^' The Old Oaken Bucket," under a 
contract with the city for tifteen hundred dollars. It stood 
in the center of Woodward avenue, about 50 feet south of 
Jefferson avenue, and covered of about 30 by 70 feet, one 
story. It was merely a roof supported by brick piers, and 
enclosed with upright slats three inches apart. It served as 
a public whipping place until the law was repealed about 
1830. The culprits were placed outside with their hands 
thrust through between the slats and tied on the inside, 
when the sheriff would apply the raw-hide on the bare 
back of the victim. 

In 1816 the mail was brought here on liorseback once a 
week through Ohio, and in bad traveling the mail l)ag was 
borne on a man's back, who footed it through the Black 
Swamp to the Maumee river. It thus continued to be 
brought until 1827, when the first line of wheel carriages 
was established between Detroit and Ohio. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 73 

There was no place of public worship in Detroit at this 
time. The Roman Catholics — Rev. Father Richard — held 
service in the house of Mr. La Salle, on the River road, on 
what is now known as the Stanton farm. It was here that 
Father Richard set up the first printing- press, and published 
the first newspaper in Michigan. 

There were four lawyers and two doctors here at this time. 

The court-martial and dancing- hall of the cantonment, 
built about this time, was afterwards used as the city court- 
room. In 1826 it was moved to Larned street, in rear of 
the Presbyterian church, and used as a session room and for 
an infant school, and a few years later it was removed to 
Congress street, on the site now occupied by the Standish 
House, and occupied by the City Council until the comple- 
tion of the City Hall in 1834. 

PKESIDENT MONROE AT DETROIT. 

The President of the United States, James Monroe, 
visited Detroit in the month of August, 1817, two years 
after the close of the war with England. He was accom- 
panied by several distinguished officers. His arrival was 
celebrated by the firing of cannon, a public dinner, ball, and 
a grand illumination of the city at night. He was on a 
tour of observation of the country, having passed through 
the New England States and visited various important 
points along the St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, and Niagara 
River to Buffalo where he embarked for this city in a sail- 
ing vessel, and visited various points on Lake Erie. On the 
14th he reviewed the troops, and Governor Cass, on behalf 
of the State of New York, then presented General 
Alexander Macomb a magnificent sword, in honor of his 
conduct at the battle of Plattsburgh. Generals Brown, 
Wood and McNeal were present. The citizens of Detroit 
presented President Monroe with a span of ly)rses and car- 
riage with which he returned to Washington by land, 



74 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

visiting all important points in Ohio, Pennsylvania and 
Maryland. 

The '' Detroit Gazette," the progenitor of the " Detroit 
Free Press," was first published at this time by John P. 
Sheldon and Ebenezer Reed. It was the first successful 
newspaper printed in Michigan. 

" SYMMES' HOLE." 

In 1818 Judge John Cleves Symmes of Cincinnati, one of 
the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territory, 
who held court in Detroit regularly annually from 1796 to 
1803, propounded his theory of a pleasant and habitable 
region within the earth, accessible by a large opening near 
the Arctic circle, and proposed to organize a party to explore 
and possess it. The ''Symmes Hole" theory was matter of 
speculation for many years thereafter, and until it was finally 
settled that an earthquake had rended and opened the rock- 
bed of Lake Superior and its mighty volume of water de- 
scended to the moulten mass beneath, when by the force of 
the steam generated, the precious metals of the floors and 
walls of the " hole " were forced to the surface of the earth. 
Then the theorists turned from the Arctic region and sought 
the pleasant and habitable " region " on the earth's surface 
toward the setting sun, and miners swarmed on the shores of 
the great inland sea, to procure the pure native metals. 

FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE LAKES. 

The steamboat Walk-in-the- water arrived at Detroit on the 
27th of August, 1818, with a large number of passengers. 
It was built at Black Rock, on the Niagara River below 
Buffalo. Its own motive power had not yet been tried, and 
it was taken up the strong current in the river by what Com- 
modore Chelsey Blake called a " horned breeze," — towed by 
several yokes of oxen. Major (afterwards Major General) 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 75 

Whiting, in a jeu d^esprit entitled " The Age of Steam," 
read at a 4th of July steamboat ride, in 1830, referred to it 
as follows : 

"And where was e'er the modern knight, 
Who, though possessed of second-sight. 
Twice eight years since could see a boat 
Within the shadowy future float? 

Or see one lying at Black Rock, 

(For Buffalo then had no dock) 

Compelled to lay the strait below, 

Till 'horn-breeze' or a storm should blow." 

The Walk-in-the-water was 330 tons burden. It was 
wrecked in a gale, and went ashore near Buffalo light-house, 
Nov. 21, 1821. 

The steamboat Superior, the second on the lakes, Captain 
J. Rogers, arrived at Detroit from Black Rock, May 25th, 
1822. It was 110 feet keel and 29 feet beam, and 346 tons 
burden : engine, 59 horse power. 

An organization known as the " Scinapa Exploring Com. 
pany," departed from Detroit Oct. 9, 1821, on their iirst 
expedition to explore the wild country which now consti- 
tutes the northern counties of the Lower Peninsula of Michi- 
gan. The results were of so favorable and important 
a character that they were published in the " National Intel- 
ligencer" and other eastern papers. 

EARLY PROTESTANT PREACHERS AND CHURCHES. 

In 1782, Moravian, or United Brethren, ministers, with 
their Indian tiocks, came here from Ohio, and located on 
Lake St. Clair, at the mouth of the Clinton River, where 
they built a village, consisting of a street of block-houses, 
which was called Gnadenhutten. They remained until 1790, 
when they crossed the lake to Canada, and located on the 
River Thames, at the place since known as Moravian Town. 

Richard Connor, whose descendants still live in Mt. 



76 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Clemens, did not go with the colony to Canada, bnt 
remained on his farm on the Clinton River. 

The first Protestant preacher to preach and locate in 
Detroit was E-ev. David Bacon, a Congregational minister, 
sent here a missionary from Connecticut, in 1801. He was 
the father of the late Rev. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, 
Conn., who was born in Detroit. Mr. Bacon also established 
the first English school here. The late David Cooper was 
one of his scholars. 

The Methodists established a society on the River Rouge, 
about five miles below Detroit, in 1810, and in 1818, erected 
there the first Protestant church in Michigan. The church 
was built of hewn logs. Its size was 24x30 feet. It had 
four windows. It was occupied by the society for about 
ten years when it was burned. Robert Abbott, father of 
Mrs. E. V. Cicott, and Auditor General of Michigan, in its 
Territorial days, born in Detroit in 1771, was the active 
agent in securing the erection of the chapel. 

The " First Protestant Society " was organized in Detroit 
in 1818. It was not denominational, and ministers of vari- 
ous opinions officiated at different periods. Rev. John Mon- 
teith, Presbyterian, was the first pastor. 

In 1822 the Methodist church in Detroit was incorporated. 
In 1823 the society obtained a donation lot from the Gov- 
ernor and Judges on the southeast corner of Gratiot and 
Farrar streets, which at that time was far out on the com- 
mon, the nearest house being one where the Russell House 
now stands. Here they commenced the erection of a brick 
meeting house, but the subscription was exhausted in put- 
ting up the walls, and the prospect was that it would have to 
stand during the winter without a roof, which would greatly 
damage the walls, when the mechanics of the city combined 
and made a "bee" and on a Sunday put on the roof. They 
did the work on the Sabbath because they thought they could 
not afford to give the time any other day. The building 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 77 

remained unfinished several years, and was used only in 
warm weather. It was so far finished that it was regularly 
occupied in 1827. In 1825, Elias Pattee, the preacher, was 
]iermitted to go east as far as the city of New York to raise 
funds to finish the house. He was absent about three 
months, and on settlement with him the trustees found after 
applying all collections towards defraying his traveling , 
expenses, they owed him two dollars cmd fifty cents. 

The society continued to occupy this building until 1834, 
when they moved into their new church, on the northeast 
corner of Woodward avenue and Congress street, which 
they occupied until 1847, when they biiilt a brick church on 
the southwest corner of Woodward avenue and State street. 
In the latter church pews were rented for the first time. 

The " First Protestant Society " built a wood church on 
the northwest corner of Woodward avenue and Larned street, 
in 1819, at a cost of $7,000, and shortly after voted to appro- 
priate it to the exclusive use of the Presbyterians. Rev. John 
Monteith continued the pastor until 1825, when he was suc- 
ceded by the Rev. Noah M. Wells. In 1834, the wood church 
was sold to a Universalist society and removed to the north 
west corner of Michigan avenue and Bates street, and it was 
used that year as a cholera hospital. Subsequently it was sold 
to a Roman Catholic society and removed to Porter street, in 
the Eighth ward, where it was known as Trinity Church. This 
year, 1834, the Presbyterians erected a brick edifice on the 
site of the old wood one, on Woodward avenue. It watJ 
after Grecian architecture, 100x60 feet. In front a pedi- 
ment supported by six large Doric columns, 24 feet in height, 
and steeple 130 feet high. Its cost was $25,000. It was 
not finished and dedicated until 1835, when Rev. John P. 
Cleveland was installed its pastor. It was burned January 
10, 1854. 

Rev. Alanson W. Walton was the first Episcopal clergy- 
man here. He came here in 1821. In 1825, St. Paul's 



78 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



Episcopal church was organized, and the society built a 
^ brick church 90x50 feet, at a cost of between four and five 
thousand dollars, on Woodward avenue, on the west part of 
the lot donated by the Governor and the Judges to the 
First Protestant Society. In 1833 it was enlarged by adding 
30 feet to its length ; the sittings were further increased in 
1836 by the addition of a gallery. 

Mr. Walton died of a prevailing epidemic, and was suc- 
ceeded, in 1824, by Rev. Eichard F. Cadle, who established 
in due form St. Paul's Church Society. He preached that 
year in the Government Council House, corner of Jefferson 
avenue and Randolph street. It was a humble beginning, 
as for some time scarcely more than " two or three gathered 
together" to hear him. Mr. Cadle left here in 1829, and 
was succeeded by Rev. Richard Berry, who remained until 
1833, when his successor was Rev. Addison Searle, a chap- 
lain in the navy. 

In 1826 the First Baptist Church was organized, and 
obtained from the Governor and Judges a donation lot on 
the northwest corner of Fort and Griswold streets, on which, 
in 1827, they built a small wood church, which they occu- 
pied several years, when it was sold to Judge Witherell and 
removed to where now is the Detroit Opera House, and 
finished into a dwelling, and subsequently used as a depot 
by the Detroit and Pontiac R. R. Co. 

FIRST BANKS. 

The Bank of Detroit was chartered, in 1806, by the Gov- 
ernor and Judges, with a capital of $400,000, which was 
owned principally by Boston capitalists. It was designed to 
be used in connection with the fur trade. The act creating 
it was disapproved by Congress, in 1807, and the bank was 
closed. 

In 1819 the Bank of Michigan was chartered by the Ter- 
ritorial Legislature, and during its many years' existence was 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 79 

a very important instnimeiit in the financial affairs of the 
country. 

AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 

Govern oi- Cass organized an expedition to explore the 
country through the upper lakes to the head of the Missis- 
sippi. The otficers were Gov. Lewis Cass, commander; 
Dr. Alexander Wolcott, physician ; Capt. D. B. Douglass, 
engineer; Lieut. JEneas Mackay, commander of the sol- 
diers; James Duane Doty, secretary of the expedition; 
Maj. Rohert A. Forsyth, Governor's secretary ; Henry R. 
Sclioolcraft, geologist and topographer ; Charles C. Trow- 
bridge, assistant topographer, and Alexander R. Chase. The 
expedition left Detroit on the 24th of May, 1820, in four 
birch bark canoes, each thirty-three feet long and six feet 
wide. At Mackinaw they took a twelve-oared barge with 
an additional escort, to Sault St. Mary, where the Indians 
were reported unfriendly. The expedition arrived at tbe 
Sault on the 14th of June. They found the savages surly 
and under control of the English. The United States had 
not maintained possession there since the war, and one 
object of the expedition was to establish a new fort. A 
council met the Indians at the Governor's tent to ascertain 
and agree upon the bounds of the concession made many 
years before the war. The council came to no agreement, 
and broke up in some disorder. A chief called the "Count," 
during his speech, planted his war-lance in the ground, with 
furious gestures, and kicked away the presents laid before 
him. On leaving the council the Indians went to their own 
encampment and hoisted the British flag in front of the 
Count's wigwam. Governor Cass, on discovering this, 
walked over, with no escort but his interpreter, and took 
the flag and carried it away, informing the astounded chief 
that none but the American flag must be raised on our ter- 
ritory, and that if they should again presume to attempt 



80 SKETCHES or DETROIT. 

such a thing the United States would put a strong foot on 
their necks and trample them out. This boldness struck 
them dumb for a while, but they soon sent off their women 
and children, and made prejjaration for an attack. The 
American force numbering sixtj^-six well armed, got ready 
to meet them. The head chief, Shingobawassin, who had 
not been present at the council, interposed and brought the 
Indians to their senses, and that same day at evening a 
treaty was signed, releasing to the Americans a tract em- 
bracing sixteen square miles. 

The expedition proceeded along the south shore of Lake 
Superior, crossing Keweenaw Point, through Portage Lake, 
and across the land portage, thence to and up St. Louis 
River to a portage near Savannah River, and down that 
stream and through Sandy Lake, to the Mississippi, ascend- 
ing that river through Lake Winnipeg to Upper Red Cedar 
or Cassina Lake. On their return they descended the Mis- 
sissippi to the Dubuque mines, and then went up to Green 
Bay by the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, and there separated. 
A portion of the company went to Mackinaw and thence 
directly homeward ; the remainder proceeded to Chicago, 
whence General Cass returned overland to Detroit, the rest 
coasting along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. 

The late C. C. Trowbridge was the last survivor of the 
expedition. The civilized population of the region explored, 
including Chicago and Detroit, was less than nine thousand 
souls at that time, where now there are four states of the 
LTnion, with a population numbering millions. Such has 
been the progress in the west within the life of man. 

In the West! In the West! "where the rivers that flow 

Run thousands of miles spreading out as they go; 

Wliere the green waving forests that echo our call, 

Are wide as old England and free to us all; 

Where the prairies, like seas where the billows have rolled, 

Are broad as the kingdoms and empires of old ; 

And the lakes are like oceans in storm or in rest," 

In this forest paradise, the land in the West. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 81 



NEW CITY CHARTER CORPORATE SEAL. 

In 1824 a new city charter was passed by the Territorial 
Legislature and Gen. John R. Williams was elected the 
Urst Mayor. The Common Council adopted the watch seal 
of the Mayor, as the temporary corporate seal of the city. 
The seal, as described of record, was as follows: "Composed 
of a red camelian, about one inch in diameter, set in gold ; in 
the center is engraved a shield, with the Fleur de lis^ nnder 
the shield the motto, ^ La justice mon dehoir, — Justice is my 
duty,' and over the shield the letters, 'J. R. W.' " General 
Williams was re-elected in 1825, and his seal continued to be 
used as the corporate seal of the city, until the adoption of 
the watch seal of his successor, Henry J. Hunt, in 1826, which 
was the corporate seal until the adoption of the present corpor- 
ate seal, which was designed by Andrew G. Whitney, a promi- 
nent lawyer of the Detroit bar, and at the time United States 
District Attorney for Michigan. The design of the seal is 
commemorative of one of the historical events which surround 
this ancient city — ^its entire destruction by fire in 1805. In 
the center are the figures of two females, one weeping over 
a burning city, the other pointing to a new one, surrounded 
by the motto, '' SjMram.us meliora ; resurget cineribus — We 
hope for better things, another will rise from its ashes." It 
is surprising, in these vandal times, when the disposition is 
to obliterate all old land-marks and relics of the olden times, 
that this most appropriate design has not been sacrificed for 
a more fanciful one. 

.JEFFERSON AVENUE EXTENDED-^TURNPIKES. 

The compiler of these sketches came to this goodly City 
of the Straits, which has ever since been his home, in the 
spring of 1827, when Jefferson Avenue was being opened 
and extended east from Brush street across the farms, which 
extension met with strong opposition from the owners of the 



82 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

farms. The only house on the line of the avenue at that 
time was the residence of the late C. C. Trowbridge, built 
the year previous, where it now is. There were no buildings 
north of the avenue, all was cultivated fields between it and 
the woods, and no other roadway crossed the farms until the 
following year, 1828, when the Gratiot turnpike was ex- 
tended across them by the United States Goverimient. The 
city and Catholic cemeteries — where now is Clinton Park 
and the St. Mary's Hospital — were opened in the spring of 
1827, and were reached through a narrow lane running from 
Jefferson Avenue, about midway between Beaubien and An- 
toine streets. 

Previous to 1827 the only roads leading out of the city 
east or west, were those up and down on the bank of the 
river. A road had been opened through the woods north to 
the Saginaw country before 1826, when the Government 
opened the Saginaw Turkpike — Pontiac road — and the old 
road, which was west of the turnpike, was abandoned. 

The i"oad to Grosse Point, as now, an extension of Jeffer- 
son Avenue, was not established foi- several years after the 
avenue was extended in 1827, and the only road then to 
Hudson's, at Gi-osse Point, was on the river beach. It was a fa- 
vorite driveway out of the city. The stopping places en route 
were B. Chapaton's, near "Wesson Place," and Peter Van 
Every's tavern, near Connor's Creek, where the pumping 
works of the city water works are located. It has recently 
been claimed that the house of Van Every was built by 
Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, and that the pear trees 
there are some of the veritable old trees brought from 
France by the early settlers, and a chair made of wood from 
each was recently presented to a distinguished citizen as 
a historical relic. For the sake of the truth of history, I 
would say that the house was built by Cadillac or that 
the trees were what is claimed, are very improbable, for the 
following reasons : First, when Cadillac came here in 1701 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 83 

there had been no settlements or houses built on the strait by 
Europeans. The site selected and where he built the fort 
was on a healthy, elevated spot, about four miles from the 
locality of that house, which is at the foot of an extensive 
marsh, and it is highly improbable that he would build a 
house for his family headquarters in a low, unhealthy spot, 
as it evidently was at that time, when he had the right to 
choose any of the very eligible sites on the banks of the strait^ 
There were no houses in that vicinity and no road to it, the 
only ways to reach them from the fort were by the beach or 
by the canoe. The fort and town he had surrounded with 
oak pickets, fifteen feet high, to protect the troops and their 
families from the depredations of the treacherous savages, 
who were jealous of his movement, and in 1703 made an at- 
tempt to burn the fort and town. Is it likely, then, that he 
would have his family headquarters four miles away, outside 
the stockade ? When he came he was accompanied only by 
his eldest son and his wife, and a younger son joined him the 
following year, leaving two other children at school in Mon- 
treal. He remained here but eight years after, when he 
went on to his large estate at Mount Desert in Maine. It 
is not probable that he built any house outside the stockade, 
except the one for the Indian chief, the Cass House, recently 
torn down. Cadillac reported to Pontchartrain that his house 
was burned by the Indians when they attempted to destroy 
the Fort in 1804, together with the church and Tonti's 
house. There were no pear trees here during Cadillac's 
residence here, nor until about thirty years after he had gone. 
The trees at Van Every's had not attained a size to warrant 
the supposition that they were among those brought by the 
first settlers in 1749. About eighty years later, as the 
writer remembei's them, they were not larger than trees he 
has of his own planting twenty years old. Yan Every had a 
whiskey distillery there, the only one in Michigan at that 
time. 



84 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

FIRST SETTLEMENTS. 

Down to 1818 the settlements in Mielii^^an were confined 
to the frontier, and on hind grants made Ijj tlie Frencli and 
English Governments, which were recognized by the United 
States. The first sales of land by the United States were 
made in 1818, but few settlements were made in the interior 
nntil the government in 1826-7-8 opened the Saginaw, Chi- 
cago and Grand River turnpikes, radiating east, west and 
north from Detroit, and penetrating the hitherto unbroken 
forest in the undisputed possession of wild beasts and wild 
savages, when hardy and enterprising farmers from the State 
of New York and the New England States made a rush for 
the oak openings and Grand Blanc prairies, passing by 
the heavy timbered land near Detroit, because wet and 
marshy and apparently luw and not susceptible of drainage, 
though gradually rising from the strait, until 18 miles back, 
reaching an elevation of 400 feet, where now, after clearing 
and opening to tlie sun's rays, permitting evaporation, and 
the cutting of turnpikes, railroads and county ditches, it is 
as dry and well cultivated as any other section of the State. 

Emigration rapidly increased after the opening of the 
turnpikes. Every steamboat ari-iving here was crowded 
with farmers, bringing with them horses, cattle, sheep, 
swine and poultry, household goods and farm implements, 
the boats returning light, for, as yet, Michigan had no pro- 
ducts to export. Many who feared crossing the lake came 
overland through Canada, their families and goods in cov- 
ered wagons, and driving their live stock afoot. Many 
came, not knowing where they would locate, who, after find- 
ing shelter for their families, would go '' land looking," and 
after locating land to their liking, return for their families. 
Houses to rent were scarce, and often from two to five fami- 
lies were domiciled under one roof, while some were forced 
to lodge on their goods in store or in their covered wagons. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 85 

This, then, really, was the founding of a State, which now, 
within the lifetime of the first pioneer settlers, takes high 
rank among the States of the Union, it being ninth in 
point of population, and first in most essential products and 
manufactures, and unsurpassed in charitable and educational 
institutions. A State which entered the Union ten years 
later — 1837— and less than thirty years after sent 90,000 sol- 
diers to the lield in its defence. 1836 was a period when 
every one was mad 

" with visions prompted by iatense desire " 

after golden harvests, as truthfully drawn by one who was 
not only midst the whirl but was herself infected with the 
land fever. We copy from Mrs. Kirkland's " Reminiscence 
of the Land Fever: " 

" The whirl, the fervour, the flutter, the rapidity of step, 
the sparkling of eyes, the beating of hearts, the shaking of 
hands, tlie utter ahandon of tlie hour, were incredible, incon- 
ceivable. The 'man of one idea' was everywhere; no man 
had two. He who had no money begged, borrowed or stole 
it ; he who liad thought he made a generous sacrifice if he 
lent it at cent per cent. The tradesman forsook his shop ; 
the farmer his plow ; the merchant his counter ; the law- 
yer his office ; nay, the minister his desk, to join the gen- 
eral chase. Even the schoolmaster, in his longing to be 
'abroad ' with the rest, laid down his birch, or in the flurry 
of his hopes, plied it with diminished unction. 

' Tramp ! tramp ! along the land they rode, 
Splash ! splash ! along the sea !'" 

t5- -k * a Qj^ they pressed, with headlong zeal ; the 
silent and pathless forests, the deej:) miry marsh, the gloom 
of night, and the fires of noon, beheld alike the march of 
the speculator. Such searching of trees for town lines ! 
Such ransacking the woods for section corners, ranges and 
base lines ! Such anxious care in identifying spots possess- 



86 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

ing particular advantages ! And then, alas ! after all, such 
precious blunders." 

A FOURTH OF JULY EPISODE. 

The bitterness of feeling between the inhabitants on 
either side of tliis frontier, growing out of the late war 
which had closed twelve years before, had not wholly died 
out, and on the fourth of July, 1827, Mr. Cliff, an English- 
man, who kept a tavern out on WoodM'ard avenue, near the 
Grand Circus, raised a tall pole in front of his house, from 
which floated the United States flag in honor of the day. 
Unfortunately the flag was up with the union down ; seeing 
which the sailors in port — -many of whom wei'c with Pei'ry 
in the Ijattle of Lake Erie — regarding it as an intended 
insult, went out in force and chopped down the pole. 

RECOLLECTION OF THE MASSACRE OF THE RAISIN. 

A resident on the opposite shore, M'ho it was thought was 
somewhat responsible for the massacre at River Raisin 
(Monroe), ventured across the river to Detroit, for the first 
time after its occurrence, one Sunday, and was recognized 
while entering a friend's house on the edge of the river near 
the ferr}'. A crowd soon gathered at the ferry waiting his 
appearance to return, a watch was kept on the house where 
he was seen to enter until late at night, when it was ascer- 
tained he had escaped and recrossed the river in a small 
canoe, kept by his friend to procure water for culinary pur- 
poses, as most did who lived along the shore. He was never 
known to be on this shore again. 

A STORY OF A DONKEY. 

About the year 1828 Major McKinstry had three jacks, 
two of which he sold to Col. Snelling, who took them to the 
far West to haul water from the Mississippi for the garrison 
at the fort he was building, which now bears his name. The 
donkey left was old and grieved at the loss of his compan- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 87 

ions and became sulky and refused thereafter to do service, 
and he was given the freedom of tlie city, and became the 
pet and sport of the youth, especially the boys at the Aca- 
demy, which was on Bates street in a corner of the Protest- 
ant Church lot and burying ground, which was the favorite 
resort of the old donkey. His habit was to linger near the 
Academy until the boys did appear at recess, when as many 
as could would mount astride his back, and he would go 
marching around in the paths amid the grassy mounds in 
apparent pride with his load. It was a question which 
enjoyed the sport most — the boys or the donkey. 

The old donkey was the innocent cause of a ludicrous scene 
in the church one warm Sunday morning. Beneath an open 
window he set up a loud, long continued braying, com- 
pletely drowning the voice of the preacher, who was forced 
to pause until his donkeyship had his bray out, saying as he 
did so, " one at a time." The attributed remark was proba- 
bly the invention of a wag. 

In 1839 J. M. Stanley, the artist, while on his tour among 
the western tribes of Indians, tarried a while at Fort Snell- 
ing. While there, the two jacks taken there by the Colonel 
were pointed out to him as two old Detroiters, and in a 
sketch he made of the fort for the writer, the jacks are 
shown, hitched tandem to- a water-cart, going up the road 
from the river to the top of the high bluff on which the 
fort is situated. 

Let another draw the likeness of the old donkey. At a 
menagerie in 1833 — the lirst one here — where Black Hawk, 
his son and prophet, who had been confined in the Fort at 
Xorfolk since their capture the year before, and were being 
taken back to his nation, were guests, a Frenchman from 
the rural district said to Mr. Theodore Williams, pointing 
toward an animal : " Monsieur William, what you call him 
dat?" On being answered that it was a zebra, he, with a 
look of indignant scorn, said: "Zebra, eh, sacre Boston- 



88 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

nia, he no fool dis Frenchman wid dat, dat way — he be one 
jackass paint. Sure! Just wipe off de paint, he be just like 
old jackass of Major McKinstry." 

TERRITORIAL POLITICS. 

During the Presidental canvass of 1828 the Federal office- 
holders here were very reticent in regard to their preference 
of candidates, — Adams or Jackson, but all of them were 
supposed to be Adams men. Indeed there were but three 
known outspoken Jackson men here. They were Judge 
Leib, Samuel Caldwell and John D. Gray, the reputed author 
of Morgan's Book on Masonry. At the inauguration of 
Jackson all the Federal officers, from Governor down, re- 
paired to Washington and returned with renewed commis- 
sions. While stopping at the Steam Boat Hotel, the land- 
lord, who was an ardent Adams man, asked Daniel LeRoy, 
who was reappointed United States District Attorney, how 
it happened that all of the officers, who, before the election, 
were strong Adams men, were now all Jackson men? "•O," 
said LeRoy, '' the catechism has been altered. It used to 
read, ' In Adam's fall we sinned all ;' it now i-eads, ' In 
Adams' fall we are Jackson all.' " 

LeRoy was a very pleasant, good-natured gentleman and a 
shrewd politician. When, some years later, he was a can- 
didate for the Teri-itorial Legislature, a neighbor opposed to 
him had lost a pig and charged his loss to LeRoy. LeRo_y, 
though indignant, took no notice of the charge and told his 
supporters not to say anything about it. LeRoy was elected 
and after the election he told his neighbor where he could 
find his pig, which he knew to be in a neighboring wood. 
When asked why he did not deny the slander and show its 
falsity by telling where the pig was before the election, 
said he knew where the pig was all the while, but had he 
denied it and made a fuss and talked about it, he would 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 89 

have been beaten. This was during the anti-Masonic politi- 
cal excitement. 

There were but 41 miles of railroad in operation in the 
United States in 1830. That year the Legislature of Michi- 
gan adopted a memorial to the general government in favor 
of the establishment of a canal or railroad route from 
Detroit to the mouth of St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan, 
and in 1832 incorporated the Detroit and " St. Joseph Rail- 
road Company." In 1834 the route was surveyed by Lieut. 
J. M. Berrien under authority of the War Department. 
His report was submitted to a convention of the friends of 
the measure, held in Detroit, in December 1834, when a 
company was organized. The directors and officers were 
as follows: Maj. John Biddle, President; Charles C. 
Trowbridge, Oliver Newberry, Shubael Conant, Edmund A. 
Brush, Henry Whiting, J, Burdick, H. H. Comstock, Mark 
Norris and C. N. Ormsby, Directors ; John M. Berrien, 
Chief Engineer; A. J. Center, Assistant Engineer; and 
John L. Talbot, Secretary and Treasurer. This company 
commenced the construction of the road in 1836, and after 
expending the sum of $139,702.79, sold the road to the 
State in 1837, when it was completed and opened to Ypsi- 
lanti in 1838, to Ann Arbor in 1839, to Jackson in 1842, 
and to Kalamazoo — 143 miles — in 1843, and in 1846 it was 
sold to the Michigan Central Railroad Company for the sum 
of $2,000,000, which company extended it to Cliicago in 
1852. 

The late Alexander H. Adams was Secretary and Treas- 
urer of the Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad Company at the 
time of its sale to the State, and he was the last survivor of 
the company. 

THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 

In 1832 Detroit was a city of 2,500 inhabitants, mainly 
interested in the successful prosecution of the Black Hawk 



90 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

war, which was then being waged under the supervision of 
Major-General Winfield Scott. Previous to the arrival of 
General Scott, Gov. Mason directed Major-General John E.. 
Williams to proceed with the First Regiment of Militia to 
the seat of war. The regiment was conmianded by Colonel 
Edward Brooks, a veteran officer under Gen. Harrison at the 
Battle of Thames River. A company of mounted dragoons, 
Capt. Charles Jackson, and the Detroit City Guards, an uni- 
formed infantry company, Capt. Isaac S. Rowland, a gradu- 
ate of West Point, voluntarily tendered their services and 
formed part of the detachment which reached Saline. Gov. 
Mason on receiving information that Gen. Scott with United 
States regulars from Norfolk were en rotcte here, sent a mes- 
sage with orders to return, all except the dragoons, who 
were to proceed with Gen. Williams and staff to the seat of 
war, and they went to Chicago. The infantry i-eturned to 
Detroit, after an absence of ten days, and were discharged, 
and some months after were paid by the United States, 
The ranks of the City Guards were so decimated by pro- 
tracted disease and death, resulting from camping without 
tents in woods during continuous rains and want of proper 
food, that the company never organized afterwards. It is 
believed that our respected townsman, V. W. McGraw, and 
the writer are the only ones now living of the Guards. 

"Alas, what is there in hum*an state, 
Or who can shun inevitable fate ? 
The doom was written, the decree was past, 
Ere the foundations of the world were cast." 

THE ASIATIC CHOLERA IN DETROIT IN 1832, 1834, 1849, 

.1854, 

was first encountered by European physicians in India, 
and supposed by them to be an epidemic form of cholera 
morbus, although Dr. Boutins, a Dutch physician, at Ba- 
tavia in .1629, and Dr. Paisly at Madras in 1774, in their 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 91 

writings, mentiou those symptoms indicative of Asiatic 
cholera, and Dr. Cm-tis, an English surgeon, in 1782, speaks 
of it as a disease entirely new to European practitioners ; but 
no ijeneral attention was directed to its character or move- 
ments until 1817, when for the first time it broke out as an 
epidemic in the delta of the Ganges, 10(» miles north of Cal- 
cutta, and spread over Hindostan. In 1820 it broke out in 
Bombay, and on the east coast of Africa, and shortly after- 
wards appeared in China and the islands of the Pacific. Up 
to this time its course was erratic, not proceeding in any one 
uniform direction ; but in 1821 it commenced its great west- 
ward march. Following the courses of rivers and traveled 
roads, it visited in succession Persia, Arabia and Asia Minor. 
In 1829 it made its appearance in Southern Russia and Mos- 
cow, and in Moscow in 1830. In 1831 it spread over the 
greater part of Central Europe, and in October of that year 
it broke out in Sunderland, England. In January, 1832, it 
was in Edinburgh, and in February in London. In Paris it 
was noticed in March, and rapidly spread over all France. 

On June 8th, 1832, it first appeared in this country at 
Quebec, and June 10th at Montreal. June 21st it broke 
out in the city of New York, and then spread in almost 
every direction over the States. On the 5th of July it 
struck Detroit, first appearing among Gen. Scott's troops en 
7'oute to the seat of the Black Hawk war, on the steamer 
Henry Claj'. It soon spread fearfully among the inhabi- 
tants, many of whom were panic stricken, and fied to the 
country, until out of a population of 2,500, not 1,500 re- 
mained. The merchant closed his store, the mechanic 
dropped his tools, and the professional man abandoned his 
study. Courts and churches were closed. Bulletins were 
issued, with all the information received, every morning, by 
the Board of Health, by order of the City Council. On a 
scorching hot Sunday morning citizens were summoned by 
ringing an alarm with the bell in the tower of the Presbyte- 



92 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

rian church, to an impromptu meeting held in front of the 
churcli, at which committees were appointed to superintend 
fumigating tlie city by burning pitch and tar, and the cover- 
ing of all damp places with lime. It was thouglit that the 
smoke only served to aggravate the disease, and it was soon 
discontinued. Tlie panic was so great in the country that at 
several places all communication was suspended by force. 
Bridges were pulled down, fences establislied across roads, 
and guards stationed to jJi'event any person from the city 
passing. The Detroit Presbytery, through their moderator, 
issued a proclamation appointing a day of humiliation and 
prayer, and inviting Christians of other sects to join with 
them in observing it. The venerable Father Richard, Yicar- 
Geueral of the Roman Catholic church, through all the 
excitement and consternation for two months was daily seen, 
clothed in the robes of his high calling, with spectacles on 
his forehead and prayer book in hand, going from house to 
house among his parishioners, encouraging the well and 
administering spiritual consolation to the dying, until com- 
pletely worn out with fatigue, and seized with the unmistak- 
able symptoms of the disease, he was forced to yield, and 
survived only three days after. He died on tlie morning of 
the 12th of September, and was buried in the afternoon of 
the same day. Notwithstanding the universal dread of the dis- 
ease, the concourse of citizens in attendance was greater 
than the entire population of the city, so great was the num- 
ber that came in from the surrounding country. 

The second appearance of the cholera here was on the 5th 
of August, 1834. The greater number of its victims were 
among the intemperate and unclean. Its i-avages also ex- 
tended to the temperate and wealthy. Among the deaths 
were Greorge B. Porter, Grovernor of Michigan, Col. Charles 
Larned, a prominent member of the Detroit bar, and Francis 
P. Browning, a leading merchant. 

The old Presbyterian church, which had been removed to 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 93 

the northwest corner of Michigan avenue and Bates street, 
was used as a hospital On tlie 14th of August tliere were 
26 deaths from the disease, which was the greatest number 
in any one day. From the 5th of August to the 1st of 
September there were 319 deaths, a heavy draft on a popu- 
lation less than 5,000, The pestilence soon after was 
entirely abated, and Wednesday, the 24th of September, was 
observed as one of thanksgiving and prayer for God's mercy 
in staying it. During the month of August business was 
almost entirely suspended. 

It broke out at New Orleans with great mortality on the 
arrival of a vessel from Havre Dec. 11, 1848, and marched 
rapidly up the Mississippi and its tributaries. At New York 
it did not appear until May, 1849. 

Early in July, 1849, it again broke out in Detroit. On 
the 9tli of July the Board of Health, two members of which 
were Dr. Zina Pitcher and Dr. H. P. Cobb, reported two 
cases of cholera in the city, one of which was fatah On the 
16th there were three fatal cases, and on the 23d three 
more, and for the week ending August 6tli but two death 
were announced. Up to the 18th of August the deaths 
from cholera averaged about one per day, after which time 
it again died away. 

Little or nothing was experienced of the dreaded disease 
again until the latter part of May, 1854. The population of 
the city at that time was about 40,000. As usual, the first 
cases occurred in low and filthy places, but it gi-adually 
spread, and for the month of June the number of deaths 
did not exceed two or three per day. During July the 
deaths from cholera averaged 12 per day. On several days 
the deaths ranged from 35 to 40. After the 1st of August 
the mortality was evidently on the decrease, the average 
deaths per day were from two to three until September 
12tli, when the last deaths occurred. 



94 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

A HALF CENTURY PAST 1833. 

Fifty years ago Detroit was the only incorporated city in 
Michigan, and the site of Chicago, the city of "Big Things," 
liad just been platted into town lots. 

On the 1st of March, 1833, the Detroit Journal and Ad- 
vertiser — progenitor of the Post and Tribune, made its ap- 
pearance as a semi-weekly paper — Maj. Thomas Rowland, 
editor. It contained an advertisement of John H. and Rob- 
ert A. Kinze, former residents of Detroit, oiiering "three or 
four hundred lots in the flourishing town of Chicago" for 
sale. In an editorial calling attention to it, the editor antici- 
pates that Chicago, ''from its health}^ locality, from commer- 
cial enterprise, and tlie rich country in its vicinity, must be- 
come one of the most thrifty towns in the West," and advo- 
cates an appropriation by Congress to build a harbor there, 
"because the place, in the course of tlie season, is visited by 
many vessels and steamboats, which ex])erience great incon- 
venience for the want of a good harbor," and said "a news- 
paper was about to be established there." The flrst number 
of the Chicago Democrat made its appearance as a weekly 
in December. A stage route was established this year "from 
Detroit to Chicago, by which travellers could go from one 
place to the other in Ave days," and it was in contemplation 
to extend the line to St, Louis. It was said that "with proper 
encouragement on the part of the Government, the mail 
might be carried from New York to St. Louis, by way of 
Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago, in eight days less time than it 
was then transported." 

About the middle of June this year, an extensive riot oc- 
curred, occasioned by the arrest of Thomas Blackburn and 
wife. Southern fugitive slaves, from Kentucky. The woman 
escaped from jail and the man, while he was being brought 
from tlie jail to be sent South by the Sheriff, was rescued by 
the colored people and conveyed across the river into Can- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 95 

ada. John M. Willson, the Sheriff, was borne down by the 
crowd and beaten with clubs — having in vain endeavored to 
defend himself by discharging his pistol — his injuries it was 
thought for a time would prove fatal. Great excitement en- 
sued, the town bell rang an alarm, the cry of "to arms," as of 
fire, was shouted through the streets, and men with guns, 
pistols and swords were to be seen coming in all directions. 
The City Council was convened and a stringent ordinance 
was passed, which prohibited all colored persons being on the 
streets after nightfall without a lantern and a lighted candle 
in it. 

The mechanics and workingmen of Detroit held a meeting 
that year and resolved that they would not work more than 
ten hours for a day's work. The time previous was twelve 
hours, and this was the first movement here to establish the 
ten-hour system. 

On the west end of the Campus Martins there was a tri- 
angular shaped lot with a frontage of 280 feet on Griswold 
street, now covered by the City Hall, which was donated by 
the Common Council, sitting as a Land Board, to trustees of 
the "Female Seminary," on which, in 1834, they erected a 
large brick building, which for many years was occupied as 
a seminary, under the supervision of Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, 
author of "New Home, Who'll Follow," "Forest Life," etc. 
Subsequently the building was occupied by the State as an 
armory. On the Fort street front there was a fire engine 
house, and on the Michigan Avenue front the depot of the 
Detroit & St. Joseph Railroad Company (now M. C. R. R. 
Co.) About twenty -five years ago the city purchased it back 
from the State for a site for the City Hall. 

The Rev. Mr, Lyster, for many years later Rector of Christ 
Church, Detroit, laid the corner-stone of St. Peter's Church 
at Tecumseh, October 10, 1833. This was • an event novel 
and interesting in the wilderness. It was the most Western 



96 SKI 

church edifice on the route usually travelled by emigrants to 
the " far West." 

The men of that day still living in this city, are Daniel 
Goodwin, John Winder, J. L. Khig, F. Buhl, C. H. Buhl, 
C. Hurlbut, John Owen, II. Hallock, H. H. LeRoy, K. E. 
Roberts, George E. Hand, William IST. Carpenter, P. E. De- 
mill, Gideon Paul, Levi E. Dolson, Amos Chaffee, A. C. Mc- 
Graw, V. W. McGraw, E. Y. Cieotte, Alexander Lewis, Wil- 
liam Adair, Alanson Sheley, T. H. Hinchman, J. C. Holmes, 
George M. Rich, J. V. Reuhle, F. Reuhle, Bela Hubbard, 
Robert Stead. 

The sessions of the Supreme Court were held at this time 
in the Territorial Capitol (now the high school). The crier 
of the court was Isaac Day, familiarlj' known as ''General 
Day" and "Field Marshal Da3^" He was a large portly 
man. One afternoon during the session of court, a severe 
thunder-storm occurred. While the General sat in somni- 
culous quietude, leaning on his ivory-headed staff of office, 
gently snoring an interlude to the raging tempest without, 
a tremendous peal of thunder jarred the building and star- 
tled all its inmates ; the General awakening, sprang upon his 
feet, and giving a heavy rap on the floor with his staff', cried 
out in a tone little lower than the thunder, 

" Silence." 

The effect was irresistible, and for a time the court and 
bar were convulsed with laughter. 

On the demise of the General, in 1835, the following 
epitaphs were written by Major Charles Cleland, Jacob M. 
Howard and John L. Talbot, members of the bar : 

BY CHARLES CLELAND. 

Step light! The light of Day expired, 

Silent is Day — who silence of t required ; 

His staff is broken, that magic staff 

That raised the beaver and suppresed the laugh ; 

And Day's no more; no ray of light 



SlvETCHES OF DETROIT. ^7 



Will ever restore to court its Day— 

Darkly they're left to feel their way, 

Since as 'tis told in Day's report, 

Day hath no more Day in court. 

" Day unto Day" no more shall utter speech— 

Since Day's in darkness— far beyond the reach; 

None cry for Day— who oft hath cried— 

To please the court, when men were tried ; 

And now that Day's shut out, we say, 

Peace to his manes, Poor Isaac Day. 



BY JACOB M. HOWARD. 

His soul is fled from this his daily scene. 
Downward "to search the gloomy caves of spleen, 
He left few children in the legal way 
With mighty wail to mourn the loss of Day. 
He left no friend, no picture and no foes, 
No face of bronze and no carbuncled nose ; 
Nor tooth, nor jaw, nor tongue left he behind. 
For heirs to quarrel for and none to find. 
Yes, he's defunct! no more the morning ray 
Shall gild the ruble nose of rising Day. 
No more from whisky, ashes, rugs and straw. 
Shall rising Day salute the halls of law ; 
No more with silver-headed cane shall tread, 
Proud as Apollo from his orient bed. 
The cost-compelling hours of ten and two. 
Big with defaults against the hapless few. 
Whose dinner-loving souls and beef ward views 
Divert from law, from juries and the stews. 



BY JOHN L. TALBOT. 



'Tis true the light of Day has fled 

And night and silence reign, for Day is dead. 

No more he cries, but has the task assigned 

To the sad spouse on earth now left behind. 

But Day again will dawn in the courts much higher. 

And take his place in them once more as crier. 

No need there'll be amid that glorious band 

Of his once harsh reproof or noise suppressing wand. 

Nor will he then as of that court the crier. 

Break his old back in making up the fire, 

Nor growl on Sundays as he casts his looks 

In charge of records, papers, lamps and books. 



98 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

In that abode his tasks will be far fewer, 

Indeed his station there's a sinecure, 

Instead of whisky, nectar there will flow — 

Instead of ashes, sausages and stew. 

And ragged rugs exchanged for sheets of snow. 

And brilliant stars and gaudy clouds shall be 

His daily couch and slumbering canopy. 

From thence he'll rise and the angels open 

Heaven's court whenever Day shines forth unbroken; 

Here from his wife, from culprits, lawyers, free, 

He'll eat and drink to all eternity. 

On the 27th of April, 1833, the steamer Michigan was 
launched from the ship yard in this city. The papers 
called her ^' a whale among the small fish on the lakes." 
Oliver [Newberry was owner and Chelsey Blake commander. 

The name of Oliver Newberry is closely associated with 
the progress of vessel and steam navigation on the lakes. 
From the commencement of his career in this city, in 1820, 
to the time of his death, July 30, 1860, he was more or less 
largely interested as owner of schooners, brigs, ships and 
steamers, always of the iirst class in their day, and at one 
time ranked as the proprietor of the largest fleet on the great 
chain of lakes. He was entitled to and received the rank of 

" ADMIRAL OF THE LAKES." 

For his efforts in the promotion of the city's name, 
for spirit and enterprise among the proudest cities of the 
land, his memory will always be cherished with affection and 
pride. 

His favorite captain, Chelsey Blake, that veteran sailor so 
long and favorably known on the waters as 

" COMMODORE OF THE LAKES," 

whom for so many years and so intimately — through battle, 
breeze and storm, had our citizens known Blake ; from the 
time he volunteered to sustain his country's flag, under Gen. 
Scott at Lundy's Lane, until through every vicissitude of a 
sailor's life, from the time he assumed command of the good 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 99 

schooner, General Jackson, in 1816, lie won for himself the 
distinffuishino; title which he bore at his deatli. That his 
name must forever be associated Math the lakes, which 
became his favorite element. Of ahnost giant size, and , 
commanding presence, no son of Neptune ever united in his 
composition a rarer combination of the qualities which make 
a true seaman, a safe commander, a genuine hero. 

Rough as the billows whose impotent assaults on his ves- 
sel he ever laughed to scorn, with voice as hoarse as the tem- 
pest which he delighted to rule, this gallant son of the sea 
had withal a woman's tenderness of heart to answer the 
appeals of distress. Sincere was the grief of many he had 
befriended, and universal the regret among all who had ever 
sailed with him or knew him well, when he fell a victim to 
cholera at Milwaukee, in the j'ear 1849. 

Commodore Henry B. Brevoort, who bore a gallant part in 
Perry's conflict, in testimony and grateful recognition of 
which his country voted him a gold medal, succeeded Blake 
as commander of the schooner General Jackson. 

The early prejudice in regard to the land near Detroit 
still existed, and emigrant settlers, of whom it was estimated 
one hundred and seventy-live arrived daily, passed them by 
and went far into the interior to make their selections for 
homesteads. 

THE DEAKBOEN ARSENAL. 

The United States arsenal at Detroit was abandoned on 
completion of the arsenal at Dearborn, 10 miles from 
Detroit on the Chicago road, in 1833, which was the largest 
and finest structure in Michigan at that time. A small vil- 
lage sprang up near it as by magic. Speculation in city lots 
was rife. It was thought a city of importance would soon 
be built there. Mr. Elliott Gray, an enterprising merchant 
in Detroit, had a steamboat named "Gen. Jackson" built at 
Mt. Clemens, to ply between Detroit and Dearborn, via 



loo SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

River Kouge, which after a few trips was withdrawn for 
want of sufficient patronage. The village had got its 
growth, and came to a stand-still on the completion of the 
public work. It was so near and yet so far from Detroit. 

Until just before the late rebellion a large quantity of 
munitions of war were constantly kept stored in the arsenal, 
when by order of the Secretary of War, they were on short 
notice sold at auction and shipped to the south, since when 
it has been practically abandoned. The policy and impor- 
tance of maintaining such a depository are clearl}^ stated in 
the following extract from an address delivered by Major 
(afterwards Major General) Henry Whiting, A. Q. M., at 
the laying of the corner stone : 

" The establishment of this arsenal may justly be regarded by Michi- 
gan as one of the best safe-guards of her tranquility. Our army fur- 
nishes the out-posts but the main body is at the plow, ready, like Cin- 
cinnatus, to be called to the field as emergencies arise. As we provide 
for that enemy which prostrates our cities in ashes, by gathering the 
waters into large reservoirs, where they are preserved from evaporation 
and loss, in readiness to meet and subdue the destroyer; so the policy of 
defences is to concentrate its means within large depots, where they are 
kept in constant order, and whence they may be always drawn in the 
hour of danger. Let us therefore with one accord pronounce this arsenal 
to be established to provide for the defence of Michigan and the common 
good of the country." 

There being a speculative scheme to dispose of the arsenal 
and extensive grounds, the state authorities should consider 
the matter and inquire into the reason for discontinuing a 
depository of military stores in this state, which has been 
maintained here for nearly a century jjast, and if to be 
abandoned now by the general government, to consider the 
propriety of securing it to the state, and maintaining it to 
provide for emergencies, as a part of the military system of 
the state. It is located near the frontier, and only about 
six miles from Fort Wayne, with ample grounds for the 
annual encampment of the state troops, where it could be 
permanently established. '' In peace prepare for war." 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 101 

"War, my lord. 
Is of eternal use to human kind ; 
For ever and anon when you have pass'd 
A few dull years in peace and propagation, 
The world is overstocked with fools and wants, 
A pestilence at least, if not a hero." 

THE FIRST CITY HALL. 

The old brick City Hall, on Michigan Grand Avenue 
fronting the Campus Martins, on the site now occujjied by 
the Public Market, was built in 1834, when the first market 
building, built in 1816, on Woodward avenue south of Jef- 
ferson ave, was taken down. 

A SERIOUS RIOT ORGANIZATION OF THE BRADY GUARDS. 

In 1835 a large force was employed grading down the 
front of the Cass farm. One day, having been given 
an unlimited supply of whiskey, the whole force numbering 
one or two hundred, were engaged fighting at the same 
time. They were too maudlin drunk to do much injury to 
each other, although blood flowed freely. Excitement in the 
city ran high. The sheriff's posse were powerless to quell 
the fight or make arrests, and as there was no military organ- 
ization to call upon, there was nothing to do but to let them 
fight it out, until night put an end to it. During the after- 
noon a number were led from the ground by their women, 
who fearlessly marched among them, and to the credit of 
the men, be it said, drunk as they were, no one laid hands 
on them or did them harm. 

This disgraceful scene showed the importance of a mili- 
tary organization, and soon after the Brady Guards were or- 
ganized, and a number of the old City Guards joined the 
new organization. 

FIRES FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

Few cities of its size have suffered by tire to the same ex- 
tent as Detroit. It was founded in 1701, and three years 



102 SKETCHES OF DETEOIT. 

later, in 1704, Indians attempted its destruction by fire, and 
partly succeeded, by sending iire-balls from their bows into 
the thatched roofs of the houses within the stockade. The 
church, Cadillac's and Tonti's houses were burned. During 
the siege of Pontiac in 1763, they again attempted its de- 
struction by the same agency, by sending fire-balls over the 
stockade and by sending fire-rafts from a point above the 
town, with the current dowm the river, hoping to fire the 
wooden wharf and the vessels alongside, but under cover of 
the guns of Fort Pontchartrain, the rafts were grappled Avith 
from small boats and towed out into the stream and they 
passed harmlessly by the town. In 1805 the city was laid in 
ruins, only one small building near the public wharf escaped 
the conflagration. In 1837 a fire started in a ball-alley on 
the east side of Woodward avenue, below At water street, 
which swept eastward along the wharfs, and burning over 
both sides of Atwater street to the center of the block east 
of Bates street, consuming a number of warehouses, manu- 
factories, stores and shops. In 1842 a fire started in a large 
barn, in rear of the "New York and Ohio House," on the 
west side of Woodward avenue, and burned over the entire 
block between Jefferson avenue and Woodbridge street, 
one of the best business squares in the city. In 1848 a fire 
broke out in a large four story warehouse on the dock, be- 
tween Bates and Randolph streets, just where the fire of 
1837 was arrested, which swept eastward and northward 
through to Jefferson avenue, consuming 250 buildings, in- 
cluding several large warehouses and manufactories, the 
Berthelet Market, and four hotels — Wales' Hotel (the Gov. 
Hull mansion, built in 1807, the first brick house in 
Michigan), the "Steam Boat Hotel," Howard's Tavern and 
Ledbeter's Tavern. Several other calamitous fires might be 
enumerated. Tliere are scarce a half dozen buildings of fifty 
years ago remaining, the greater number having been swept 
away by^fire. 



SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 103 

Down to 1815 there were no fire engines here, and but one 
fire company, a " bag, bucket and battering-ram com}3any." 
Leather buckets were required to be kept in readiness in 
every house, and all premises were required to be provided 
with ladders, and a certain quantity of water in casks, ar- 
ranged with handles and a pole, so that two men could sling 
them on their shoulders and carry them to a fire. A fire en- 
gine company was organized in 1815, to man an engine pro- 
cured from Commodore Perry's flag-ship, after tlie battle of 
Lake Erie, Sept. 10, 1813, which was the only engine here 
until 1825, when the city purchased a large and more effec- 
tive machine for the comjjany. Other machines M'ere pur- 
chased from time to time until 1839, there were four engine 
companies, one hose company, one hook, ladder and axe com- 
pany, and a company of Fire Wardens. The whole force 
numbered about 200 men. They were volunteer firemen, 
organized on the system inaugurated by Benjamin Franklin 
in Philadelphia, in 1777. They rendered gratuitous services 
and defrayed all contingent expenses, the city furnishing the 
machines and houses for them. 

The members were mostly young men, and one of the 
companies was known as the " Boys Company." All were ac- 
tive and efticient, and a spirit of rivalry aniinated them in be- 
ing first to a fire and getting on the first stream of water. To 
show the extent of this, an incident is here recalled. There 
had not been a fire for several weeks and the boys were spoil- 
ing for a fire. When one night, one who we will call John, 
who was quietly sleeping in his bed, was awakened by a mem- 
ber we will call Kin, who, shaking him and saying, "John, 
John, wake up, get up quick and come to the engine-house, 
there is going to be a fire." John was at the engine-house 
in double-quick time, where he found a number ahead of 
him with the drag-rope unreeled and stretched out into the 
street, awaiting the alarm, which presently came from the 
Town bell, wdien with a shout, " away with her," they were 



104 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

soon at the fire and had the first water on it. The fire was 
in an isolated, old nnoccupied blacksmith shop, of no great 
value and a nnisance to the neighborhood, where the Unitar- 
ian Church now stands. 

The department was under command of a chief engineer, 
with no organized association, and except when on duty at 
fires, each company in matters of discipline and social enjoy- 
ment or mutual good, acted for itself, when it was deemed 
best for the interests and greater effectiveness and good of 
the whole to organize an association, which was effected at a 
meeting held January 11, 1840, which was chartered by the 
State Legislature February 14, 1840. The officers named in 
the act were : Robert E. Roberts, president ; Frederick 
Buhl, vice-president; Edmund R. Kearsley, secretary; Da- 
rius Lamson, treasurer, and Elijah Goodell, collector, they 
having been elected at a prior meeting of the firemen. 

At the time of the organization of the department, the 
city constructed a building on the northwest corner of 
Earned and Bates streets, which was called the Firemen's 
Hall. The first story was occupied by an engine, hook 
and ladder and hose companies, and the second story by the 
Common Council, Mayor's Court, city officers, and by the 
Fire Department for holding meetings. In 1849 the associ- 
ation had a fund on hand of $6,000, accumulated from pro- 
ceeds of balls, excursions, annual dues of members, and by 
the judicious and careful management of the funds by its 
officers, all of whom rendered gratuitous service. The num- 
ber of members had largely increased, and a more commo- 
dious place of meeting was required and decided upon, when 
the lot on the southwest corner of Jefferson avenue and 
Randolph street was purchased with the fund on hand. 
James A. "Van Dyke, president of the association, effected a 
loan of $8,000, and the building, to cost $17,000, was put 
under contract, relying upon the liberality of their fel- 
low-citizens to aid in completing it. The promptness with 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT, 105 

which they came to their aid when it was found they liad 
gone to the extent of their means, showed that no false esti- 
mate was phiced on their liberality. The ladies, too, who 
had often cheered the men at the brakes, when they had an 
all night's work at a fire, by sending them hot eoifee, etc., came 
to tlieir rescue, got np a Fair to increase tlieir fund, from 
which nearly $1,000 was realized. The hall was completed 
in the fall of 1851, and it was thought that a sufficient per- 
manent income from rents of stores, offices and hall for the 
needs of the association was assured for all time to come, not 
dreaming that the hand engine and human muscle were des- 
tined to be superseded by steam in extinguishing fires. 
Providentially and fortunately — for many young men's 
health were impaired by the severe labor and exposures — 
American genius produced a more efficient and less injurious 
means — both physically and morally- — and the name of 
Latta, the Cincinnati inventor, deserves to be immortalized. 
In 1861 the steam tire engine, drawn by horses, and manned 
by a paid force, superseded the volunteer system, inaugur- 
ated by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1777, when 
the fifteen engine and hook and ladder companies, with the 
volunteer force of 600 men in Detroit, were thrown out of 
active service. In conflicts with the elements they were 
organized to combat, the volunteer firemen, as a body, ever 
did their duty promptly, courageously and nobly ; and 
though no martial strain, waving plume, or hope of glory, 
cheered them on, deeds of valor were performed by many 
which should have won them wreaths of fame, bright as 
ever bloomed for the warrior's brow. 

Since the retirement of its members from active service, the 
membership has been reduced, by deaths and voluntary with- 
drawals, to about 130, and the estimated value of its assets is 
$100,000. What to do with this accunmlated property is 
the question that perplexes the members. AH agree that 
the association has served its time, that its usefulness has 



106 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

passed, and tliat its existence slionld be terminated. As one 
of the projectors of the organization, any plan for its termi- 
nation a majority of its members may agree upon, will be 
satisfactory to him. So that is done. On application to the 
Legislature for the passage of an enabling act authorizing 
its termination in any manner a majority of its members 
deemed just and equitable, the Judiciary Committee of the 
Senate decided that the Legislature had no power to author- 
ize the distribution of its fund otherwise than that pre- 
scribed by its charter, to wit, for the relief of disabled 
firemen and their families, and reported adversely, and the 
bill was not passed. But at the next and last session of the 
Legislature an amendment to the charter was passed pro- 
viding for the appointment of substitutes on the demise of 
members, thus in effect perpetuating the oi'ganization, and 
ultimately its effects will pass into the hands of those who 
never were firemen, and who never in any manner contrib- 
uted to the fund. 

THE BOY GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN. 

Among the one thousand oil paintings in the Art Loan Ex- 
hibition of 1883, there is one of particular interest to those 
who witnessed the scene portrayed, or familiar with the 
manner of conducting elections in the early days of the 
State. It was painted in 1837 by Thomas Burnham, an 
amateur artist, and is a faithful representation of the elec- 
tion scene in the Campus Martins, in front of the old City 
Hall, where the whole vote of the city was polled. The 
candidates for Governor were Gov. Mason, Democrat, and 
Charles C. Trowbridge, Whig. Gov. Mason is the central 
figure, represented as placing in the hand of John Weiss, the 
butcher, a dollar, given him, as was charged, for his vote. 
Frank Sawyer, editor of the Advertiser (Whig), and Kins- 
burry, editor of the Detroit Post (Democrat), with a coj)y 
of their respective papers in their hands, engaged in earnest 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. lOY 

dispute. Sawyer is backed by George C. Bates, and Kins- 
burry by Gardner. Col. D. C. McKinstry, Cliairnian of the 
State Democratic Central Committee, resting on his cane, is 
an interested listener. On the right is James Stilson, auc- 
tioneer, on a horse, leading a car filled Mnth hard-fisted 
Democrats, drawn by three yoke of oxen. On the left com- 
ing lip is the ship Constitution, on wheels, drawn by four 
horses, commanded by Capt. Robert Wagstaff, and manned 
by a picked crew of jack tars. This was before the intro- 
duction here of lager, in which there is no fight, and when 
the respective parties — who had both imbibed freely of 
" fire water " — met, a fierce pitched battle was waged, in 
which about 200 were engaged, which resulted in many 
bruised heads, black eyes and bloody noses and no fatalities. 
This was before the days of cheap revolvers. In a like 
scrimmage in these days the report of a dozen or more revol- 
vers would be heard attended with fatal results. 

Stevens Tliomson Mason, of Kentucky (he was a native ol 
Yirginia), was appointed Secretary of the Territory of Michi- 
gan, and sworn in on the 25th of July, 1831. The office 
of Governor being vacant, he was Acting Governor of 
Michigan — he was but twenty years of age, and the youngest 
person Mdio ever held so exalted a position in the United 
States. His elders in Detroit were greatly exercised about 
being under the rule of a mere youth. A public meeting 
was held, at which a committee composed of five of the most 
influential citizens were appointed to procure his resignation 
or removal. Mason, on meeting the committee when they 
called on him and requested him to resign, disarmed and 
captured them by the frank and courteous manner in which 
he received them, and saying in reply to their objection on 
account of his youth : "'A young man would be more ready 
to accept the guidance of his elders than one of riper years." 
Among his devoted adherents afterwards were a majority of 
the committee, and for years later, on the admission of 



108 SKETCHES OF DETEOIT, 

Michigan into the Union, he was elected the first Gov- 
ernor of the State, and again two years later, he was re- 
elected. His administration was popular, and he was person- 
ally respected by the entire community. He died young, 
suddenly, in the city of JN^ew York, where he had removed 
after the expiration of his second term, and he is kindly re- 
membered by all knew him. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF '40. 

The excitement of the canvass in the Presidential election 
of 184:0, exceeded that of any other before or since. The 
people were fairly wild. Hickory poles, the emblem of the 
Democrats, and liberty poles that of the Whigs, were raised 
at every cross-road. Log cabins were built in most cities 
and villages. In Detroit, an immense log cabin was built 
on Jefferson Avenue, opposite the Biddle House, the logs for 
which were cut in the woods about three miles out on the 
Grand River road, and brought in by teams in a single day, 
and the cabin put up by volunteers, among whom were me- 
chanics, merchants, lawyers, doctors and bankers. Conspicu- 
ous among them was the late A. H, Sibley, cashier of the 
Bank of Michigan, in high top boots, trudging through the 
deep mud, driving an ox team with the essential "ox gad" 
of unusual length. In front of the cabin there was a tall 
liberty pole, from the top of which a flag floated during the 
day, as a signal when meetings were to be held, and at night 
a red light was run up. Inside, the walls were hung with 
flags, banners and mottoes, and over the Glee Club stand 
there was "that same old coon sitting on a rail." The beams 
and rafters were strung with seed corn in the ear, hanging 
from their braided husks, dried pumpkins and dried apples. 
It was dedicated on the 21st of April. In the procession 
there was a well built log cabin, 9 by 12 feet, on wheels, 
drawn by six yoke of oxen, which was brought from Dear- 
born — 10 miles — that day. On the top of the cabin sat a 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT, 109 

live coon. Inside there was a plentiful supply of "hard 
cider," corn cake and dough-nuts, and the "latch string" was 
out in the door. Following the cabin 'there was a huge ball 
9 feet in diameter, rolled along by a glee club, singing : 

" 'Tis the ball a rolling on, 
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too, 
And with them we'll beat little Van. 
Van, Van's a used up man. 
And with them we'll beat little Van." 

This ball was, during the summer, rolled to interior towns 
by the glee chib, singing en route, until finally reaching 
Flint — GO miles — when the roads became so muddy they 
were unable to proceed further, and it was abandoned. 

Tables in the cabin, extending all around the walls, were 
well filled with cooked meats, pork and beans, bread and 
cheese, pumpkin pies, dough-nuts, corn cake, one huge 
Johnny cake 10 feet long, hominy, mush and milk, apple 
sauce, and an abundance of "hard cider," on which the im- 
mense throng feasted, while music and singing by the Glee 
Club proceeded. 

Hon. David E. Harbaugh was the orator of the day. Ad- 
dresses were made by George C. Bates and others. 

Col. Edward Brooks, an officer under Harrison at the bat- 
tle of the River Thames, was master of ceremonies and re- 
cited the story of "Dr. Diable Encore," an epic poem writ- 
ten for the occasion. 

The Harrison club in Detroit chartered three steamboats 
to convey those who wished to go to the Fort Meigs 
celebration, at which Gen. Hari'ison would be present, 
on the 11th of June, and invited clubs from the inter- 
ior. The numbers that came to the city the night be- 
fore was so great the hotels could not lodge one half 
of them, and their enthusiastic Whig friends were forced to 
hang out the "latch string" and provide them lodgings at 
their houses. At Deacon David French's, where the writer 



110 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

boarded at the time, every bed was filled, and in order to ac- 
commodate the number sent him from the cabin, feather 
beds were laid in the center of the parlor and dining room 
floors, on which to rest their heads and shoulders, while lying 
stretched out around on the carpet. On looking in upon 
them in the night, they resembled a card board of scissors 
as often displayed in shop windows. Soon after sunrise in 
the morning, clubs with music and banners, came in from 
the surrounding country, to take the boats which were to 
start at an early hour. At breakfast, Mr. Starkweather from 
Plymouth, who had been down town, told of the numbers 
he had seen coniing into the city by every road— said to the 
writer, "I^ow tell me what does all this mean ? Is there real 
cause for this uprising of the people ? or are we all fools and 
beside ourselves ?" I gave it up. It was evident that the 
stories told them from the stump of the gold spoons and 
other extravagances^ indulged in at the White House, was 
too much for the hard-fisted yeoman of the West, who were 
living in log cabins and clearing a home for their families 
on the forties and eighties they had purchased at ten shill- 
ings per acre. It mattered not to them to be told that Presi- 
dent Yan Buren maintained the White House from his own 
private fortune, and that he had not drawn a dollar of his 
salary of $25,000 a year, gold spoons were not to be toler- 
ated at a republican court. 

THE SECOND SLAVE KIOT. 

A slave riot occurred on the 24th of October, 1839, oc- 
casioned by a decision of the Hon. Ross Wilkins, Judge of 
the United States District Court, that a negro slave who was 
claimed as a fugitive from servitude in the State of Mis- 
souri, should be delivered to his master. In consequence a 
large quantity of blacks and whites (Abolitionists), collected 
in front of the city hall and attempted to resist the execu- 
tion of the law, when the U. S, Marshal called upon the 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. Ill 

Brady guards for assistance, and while conducting the slave 
from tlie court-house to the jail, the mob made an attack on 
the guards, which was repelled by them, after capturing one 
white and three blacks, who, witli the slave, were safely 
lodged in prison. The guards remained on duty until six 
o'clock the next morning. The slave was subsecpiently 
released and given his freedom which was purchased from 
his owner by citizens of Detroit who contributed the value 
placed upon him by his owner. 

TELEGRAPHY. 

Rev. Jedediah Morse, the first American geographer and 
maker and publisher of the first map of the United States, 
and his son, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, an artist of fame, 
better known, perhaps, as the inventor of the electric tele- 
graph, visited Detroit in 1820, crossing Lake Erie in the 
Walk-in-tlie-water, the first steamboat on the lakes. When 
on the voyage, the elder Morse said to the late John Roberts 
of this city, who was a fellow passenger, " I have made and 
published a maj) of Michigan, and now, for the first time, 
am going to see the country." The son. Prof. Morse, on 
his return east took up his residence in the city of New 
York, where he found his works and talents were more 
justly appreciated. Under a commission from the city gov- 
ernment, he painted a f nil-length portrait of LaFayette 
when on a visit to the United States, in 1825. Here he 
founded the National Academy of Design, and it is worthy 
of note that the first course of lectures on the subject of art 
read in America were delivered by him before the New 
York Athenaeum. In the rooms of the Academy or 
Sketching Club, of which he was president, he perfected his 
inventon of electric telegraph, in 1835. In 1837, with re- 
gret, he abandoned art and devoted himself to the advanc- 
ment of his invention, and filed his caveat at the 
Patent Office in Washington. In 1844 the first electric tel- 



112 SKETCHES OF DETROIT, 

egraph was completed in the United States, between Wash- 
ington and Baltimore, and the first intelligence of a public 
character which passed over the wires M'as the announcement 
of the nomination of James K. Polk as the Democratic 
candidate for the Presidency, by the Baltimore convention. 
The successful experiment in the room of the "Sketching 
Club" is described in the following lines from a poem by W. 
H. Coyle, one time a resident of Detroit : 

" Silence and night 
Had huslied tlie babel city to deep sleep, 
Around the walls of the magician's room 
A circuit ran, three miles of air-hung wires; 
And on a table stood the sealed jar, 
Where prison'd coiled the fiery messenger. 
Trembling, he wrote "Eureka," when a flash, 
Electric, like a ray swift traveling 
From the sun, thrilled through each palpitating 
Iron vein, andlo! upon a spotless 
Scroll, unroll'd, a hand invisible wrote 
The wing'd word "Eureka!" The artist's dream 
Was realized; and now blooms upon his brow 
The laurel of his country's gratitude. " 

In 1848, the first telegraph dispatch was received in Detroit, 
from New York, and in 1858 there was in Detroit an Atlantic 
Cable Telegraph Jubilee in honor of the reception of a mes- 
sage of the Queen of England, and the reply of the Presi- 
dent of the United States, transmitted over the Atlantic 
Cable, when a hundred guns were fired, all the public build- 
ings and many private houses were illuminated, the bells of 
all the churches were rung for an hour, from 8 to 9 o'clock 
p, M. A torch-light procession headed by the Mayor, Com- 
mon Council and other City Officers, ending the march in the 
Campus Martins, and forming a hollow square around a 
stand from which addresses were made to the assemblage. 
During the progress and along the line of the procession 
there was a constant display of fireworks. 



SKETCHES OF DETEOIT. 113 

The following were the first messages over tiie Atlantic 

Cable : 

London, Aug. 16th, 1858. 

To the Hon. the President of the Uaited States: 

Her Majesty desires to congratulate the President upon the successful 
completion of the great international work, in which the Queen has 
taken the deepest interest. The Queen is convinced that the President 
will join her in fervently hoping that the electric cable which now con- 
nects Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional link 
between the two nations whose friendship is founded upon their common 
interests and reciprocal esteem. The Queen has much pleasure in thus 
communicating with the President, renewing to him her wishes for the 
prosperity of the United States. 

Washington, Aug. 16th, 1858. 

To Her Majesty, Victoria, Queen of Great Britain: 

The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her 
Majesty, the Queen, on the success of the great international enterprise 
accomplished by the science, skill and indomitable energy of the two 
countries. It is a triumph more glorious because far more useful to 
mankind than was ever won on the field of battle. May the Atlantic 
Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to be a bond of future 
peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument 
destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty 
and law throughout the world. In this view will not all Christendom 
spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be neutral, and that 
its communications shall be held sacred in transmission to their places 
of destination, even in the midst of hostilities ? 

JAMES BUCHANAN. 

The directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company sent 
the following from Cyrus Station, N. F., Aug. 16 : 

Europe and America are united by telegraph. "Glory to God in the 
highest, on earth peace and good will toward men." 

A EIOT. 

A serious outbreak against the order and peace of the city 
occurred on the 6th of March, 1863, occasioned by an un- 
lawful assemblage of persons to dispute the supremacy of 
the law, and wrest from judicial punishment Falkner, a 



114 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



negro iiiaii wlio was convicted in tlie Recorder's Court, and 
immediately sentenced by His Honor Judge Witlierell to 
States Prison for life for committing a rape UjDon a white 
girl of about ten years of age. On taking him back to the 
jail, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, under an escort of 75 
men of the Provost Guard, an immense mass of people fol- 
lowed and assaulted the guards with bricks, stones and other 
missiles. When near the jail, being furiously assaulted by 
the crowd, the soldiers fired on them, killing Charles Lan- 
gier, a looker-on, and wounding several others. The Pro- 
vost Guard tlien retired to the barracks, when the preju- 
dice toward them was transferred to the negroes living; in 
the vicinity of the jail. A cry was raised to drive every 
negro out of the city, and an inhuman and indiscriminate 
attack was made upon their persons and property, and speedily 
the flames burst forth from two tenements occupied by them. 
When Francis B. Phelps, Acting Mayor, requested Colonel 
Smith to send another force of 100 men from the barracks 
to disperse the mob, Colonel Smith promptly gave the order, 
but being advised that an attempt was to be made to fire the 
barracks by the conscripts in quarters there (which attempt 
was unsuccessfully made), the order was countermanded by 
Col. Smith, and he summoned a company of regulars from 
Fort Wayne, commanded by Capt. Chnrchill, who promptly 
reported at the Mayor's oflice, and received from the Mayor 
his authority in writing to Are on the rioters. The Detroit 
Light Guard and the Lyon Guard were also called out and 
reported at the same time, when both detachments proceeded 
to the burning district to disperse the mob. The flames of 
the burning buildings but increased the flames of passion, 
until the city police and the military completely lost control. 
When Adjutant General Robertson, at the request of the 
Mayor, telegraphed an order, directing Col. D. M. Fox, of 
the Twenty-seventh Regiment Michigan Infantry, at Ypsi- 
lanti, to repair forthwith to Detroit with Ave companies of 



SKETCHES OF DETEOIT. 115 

infantry, to which he responded, and in one hour and ten 
ininntes reported with his command at the Mayor's office, 
wliich he was enabled to do by the prompt action of R. N. 
Rice, Superintendent of tlie Michigan Central Raih-oad, who 
passed tliem over tlie road without expense to the city. The 
military being thus reinforced wei'e enabled to surround the 
burning district, which had extended from Croghan street 
down Brash and Beaubien streets to near Congress street, 
and protect the firemen while at work arresting the spread 
of the tire. The mob dispersed, and comparative quiet pre- 
vailed about midnight, but for about nine hours the most 
intense excitement prevailed throughout the city, for there 
was no telling where the destruction would end. 

The military remained on duty, patrol ing the streets 
and guarding the barracks, Michigan Central depot and 
grain warehouses, until the following morning. And Ijy 
request of the Mayor tlie military were held in reserve. 
Col. Fox's command occupied the City Hall, the Light 
Guards, Scott Guards and Lyon Guards remained in their 
respective armories for several days, and on Sunday the 
Mayor ordered stationed at the different colored churches a 
sufficient police force to protect their congregations in the 
enjoyment of their religious privileges. Col. Fox's com- 
mand remained here three days, when it returned to Ypsi- 
lanti. 

NEW CITY HALL. 

The new City Hall, the corner-stone of which was laid on 
the 6th day of August, 1868, was completed and dedicated 
on the 4th of July, 1871. The hall stands on the west side 
of Campus Martins. The length of the building is 201 
feet, width 90 feet, height three stories from wall to wall, 
besides basement and Mansard roof. There are two grand 
entrances on the Woodward avenue and Griswold street 
front. In front of each are double story porches, resting 



116 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

npon seven massive stone columns, and seven stone steps 
extend across their front. In front of the Fort street and 
Michigan avenue entrances the porches also rest upon like 
massive stone cohimns. Above the corner of the first sec- 
tion of the tower are four statues, each fourteen feet high, 
representing Justice, Art, Commerce and Industry. The 
bell on the tower weighs 7,600 pounds, and cost $2,750. 
The clock cost $2,850. The foundation of the building cost 
$64,027.09, and the building proper cost $425,914.04, mak- 
ing the entire cost of the building $489,941.13. Taking 
everj'^thing into consideration, and the cost, including orna- 
mentation of the grounds, furniture and fixtures, was $551,- 
346. The material used in its construction is light cream- 
color sandstone. 

A bird's eye view of the city of DETROIT FROM THE CITY 
HALL TOWER. 

Here in the City Hall Tower, at an elevation of 200 feet 
above the water level of the strait, the view of the city 
below and of the scenery around about for miles distant, is 
most enchanting. Although the surrounding country is 
level, with no mountains or hills to add to the picturesque- 
ness of the scene, in their stead there are the broad expanse 
of water in lakes and river, dotted with numerous islands 
and islets, and in every direction are seen the white-spread- 
ing sails, floating steam palaces, steam barges, tugs with long 
tows of vessels ; the jaunty, swift-plying private steam 
yachts, sailing yachts, the boat clubs' gigs and sculls, and the 
ancient canoe ; and on the land, forests and fields, with a 
dozen surrounding villages and manufacturing groups of 
buildings, with their tall chimneys sending out volumes of 
dense, black smoke, seen by day ; and at night the lurid 
flame from numbers of iron and copper-smelting works, and 
radiating from the city east, west, north and south ; on iron 
roads the steam " iron horse rushes, belching forth fire and 




CITY HALL. 



SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 119 

smoke," and over wires, stretched from tops of rows of tall 
poles, "intelligence is carried to and fro through the land as 
by liglitning." Besides the fulfilment of the ancient pro- 
phecy in this age, the human voice is transmitted to and 
heard in distant parts of the land, and responses are returned 
and heard as quick as thought. 

Across the strait to the south, but a little more tlian a half 
mile away, is Her Majesty's dominion, with the quaint 
villages of Amherstburgh and Sandwnch, and the modern 
towns of Windsor and Walkerville, to which, to and fro 
magnificent steam ferries constantly ply, and elegant excur- 
sion steamers leave the city hourly for the city's island park. 
Belle Island, Sandwich and the White Sulpliur Spring and 
Sanitarium at Wyandotte, ten miles below the city; so that 
with the passing to the upper lakes of large steamers, pro- 
pellers and sail vessels, the two steamers daily, morning and 
afternoon, to Star Island and the Club house there, where 
sportsmen in numbers disport, fish and go ducking, and 
thence on to the " Oakland" and St. Clair Mineral Spring 
and Port Huron ; the steamer leaving daily for Mount 
Clemens Mineral Spring on the Clinton Hiver, discharging 
into Lake St. Clair twenty miles away ; the daily steamer 
to Chatham on the River Thames in Canada, and other 
steamers leaving daily for the copper and iron mines of Lake 
Superior, and Amherstburgh, Toledo, Sandusky, Put-in-bay, 
Cleveland, Buffalo and the lower lakes, there is constantly 
some moving charming attraction in view on the strait. 

As to the strait we must agree with Father Hennepin, who 
passed through when it was in a state of nature 200 years 
ago. He wrote " that one would think that nature alone 
could not have made without the help of art so charming a 
prospect," and Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, in a report 
to the French Government one hundred and eighty years 
ago, said: "It is the 



120 SKETCHES Og DETROIT. 

Door 

by which one can go in and out to trade with all our allies." 
The strait has now come to be the door by which one can go 
in and out, by rail, to any point in the United States or 
Canada. As was said, "all roads lead to Rome" so all short 
trunk lines of railway, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, lead 
to this strait, and sooner or later an uninterrupted pathway 
either over or under it will be provided. 

Having lived in this city nearly three score years, and 
accustomed to see the city and surroundings and to watch its 
progress and growth from a mere fur trading and military 
post, to a large commercial and manufacturing metropolis, 
the population increasing from one thousand five hundred 
to one hundred and fifty thousand, I did not realize what it 
is until now, for the first time, viewing it and its surround- 
ings from this altitude. The sight compensates for all the 
fatigue of ascending the many flights of winding iron stairs. 
The great avenues, radiating from this centre, east, west and 
north, leading into the country, can be traced for many 
miles until narrowing and disappearing like shadows. The 
forest of trees on Belle Isle Park and the lake beyond seem 
almost beneath your feet. The street cars passing to and fro 
seem no larger than carriages, carriages seem like dog-carts; 
men and women like Tom Thumbs and Minnie Warrens. 

The city outside the business centre, from this point, has 
the appearance of a dense forest with many heaven-pointing 
spires towering above the trees, justifying what has been 
said that Detroit is a park city, for were the buildings re- 
moved it would be an extensive park, with more than two 
hundred miles of driveways, forming a perfect network. 
There are sidewalks of smooth stone ; wide avenues skirted 
with from two to six rows of stately elms, maples, lindens 
and buckeyes ; flowers, climbing vines and exotics in profu- 
sion, and numerous works of art, statues and fountains spout- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



121 



ing sprays of water, cooling,*moisteningand purifying the air. 
That dense cluster of trees about 1.000 feet distant to the 
northwest are in the two Grrand Circus Paries, with a large 
fountain in the centre of each, where on any day or evening 
during the heated term, may be seen the numerous settees 
filled witli citizens, tlie gravel walks with promenaders and 
numbers of maidens with perambulators giving infants the 
benefit of breathing in the open air, sheltered from the hot 
rays of the sun, pure and whole- 
some atmosphere. Bands dis- 
course cheering music occasional- 
ly from the grand stand there 
provided, and the electric lights 
give brilliancy to the scene. 
Radiating from these parks are 
six avenues, one of 120 feet and 
three 200 feet in width, each 
skirted with rows of stately trees, 
and Woodward avenue, 120 feet, 
passes between, dividing the 
parks. Besides these parks there 
are numerous other small ones 
located in diferent parts of the 
city. 

Directly beneath us is the 
Campus Martins, 400x600 feet, 
in which the City Hall, and Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument 
are located. Fronting which are the Russell and Kirkwood 
Hotels, Detroit Opera House, Park Theatre, American Ex- 
press Office and a number of stores, shops and ofiices. Radi- 
ating from the Campus are one avenue 200 feet wide, in 
which the public markets are located, and two 120 feet 
wide, and one 80 feet wide, and three streets each 100 feet 
wide; while in front, looking south, 2,000 feet distant, run 




SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' 
MONUMENT. 



122 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

the bine waters of tlie strait floating a constant moving pano- 
rama of steam and sail craft. 

Yonder extensive forest of more tlian 100 acres, two 
miles to the east, is the beautiful and sequestered 

ELMWOOD CEMETEKY. 

There beneath the shade of the old towering elms, whose 
name it bears, will sleep as thej pass awaj, generations who 
have peopled Detroit. 

" Here on this spot, 
Where many generations sleep forgot, 
Up from marble tomb and grassy mound, 
There coraeth on the ear a peaceful sound. 
Which bids us be contented with our lot 
And suffer calmly." 

If it indicates a gentle spirit, and hearts open to the in- 
fluences of elevated liumanity to cherish and beautify the 
graves of lost loves, to honor the useful and good, and to 
freshen the remembrances of the sweet and lovely in life, then 
has Detroit furnished such evidence in her chaste, secluded, 
picturesque and beautiful Elmwood. John Trumbull, the 
poet of the American Revolution, author of McFingal, 
"here'neath the sod of this new world the patriot poet 
lies," (which quotation we find engraved on his tomb b}'^ 
Miss Sigorney). 

Adjoining Elmwood on the east is 

MT. ELLIOT CEMETERY, 

containing fifty acres, which were purchased Aug. 31, 1841, 
and twelve days later the mortal remains of Robert T. 
Elliott, its projector, and one of its founders, were the first 
to find a resting place therein. Here the remains of Col. 
Hamtramck, the first United States Military Commandant of 
Detroit and its dependencies, repose. His tomb has the fol- 
lowing inscription : 

" Sacred to the memory of John Francis Hamtramck, 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 123 

Esq., Colonel of the First U. S. Regiment of Infantry, and 
commandant of Detroit and its dependencies. He departed 
this life on the 11th of April, 1803, aged 45 years, 7 months 
and 28 days. True patriotism and zealons attaclmient to 
national liberty, joined to a laudable ambition, led him into 
military service at an early period of life. He was a soldier 
before he was a man. 

" He was an active participator in all the dangers, difficul- 
ties and honors of the Revolutionary war, and his heroism 
and uniform good conduct procured him the attention and 
personal thanks of the immortal Washington. The United 
States in him have lost a valuable officer and a good citizen, 
and society a useful and pleasant member. To his family 
his loss is incalculable, and his friends will never forget the 
memory of Hamtramck. This humble monument is placed 
over his remains by the officers who had the honor to serve 
under his command ; a small tribute to his merit and his 
worth." 

Col. Hamtramck was appointed commandant at Detroit 
by John Adams, second President of the United States, in 
1799. The quaint, old house, with the chimneys outside on 
either end, on the margin of the Detroit river, Yan Dyke 
farm, Hamtramck, was the residence of Hamtramck. 

About five miles west, on the banks of the River Rouge, 
is 

WOODMEEE CEMETERY, 

which embraces 200 acres of land, which has a varied and 
gently undulating surface, with a great variety of native 
forest trees and unfailing streams of water within its bounds, 
The soil is of a sandy, porous nature, and well adapted to 
purposes of sepulture. 

" Here will indeed be 

Rest for the dead. 
Far from the turmoil and strife of trade, 
Let the broken house of the soul be laid. 



124 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Where the violets blossom ia the shade. 
And voices of nature do so softly fall 
Over the silent sleepers all — 
Where rural graves are made." 

BUSINESS CENTRES. 

Within a circle ot" half a mile from the Hall all is busi- 
ness and bustle. The space, compactly built over with 
massive buildings, four, five and six stories high, occupied 
by merchants, bankers and professionals, and the thorough- 
fares leading to the country — -Michigan, Grand River, Wood- 
ward and Grratriot avenues — are all compactly built up from 
two to five miles distant from the Hall, with brick stores 
and manufactories — on all of which horse cars run to the 
city limits — -and those to the east and west from two to 
three miles beyond. 

THE CITY PLAT OLD AND NEW. 

The plat of the city, as originally made by the Governor 
>vnd Judges in 1807, and until 1827, only embraced all be- 
tween the Brush farm on the east and Cass farm on the 
west and the river and Adams avenue, to which point it was 
platted into city lots ; beyond for two miles were sub- 
urban lots of 10 acres, called '' Park Lots," for gardens and 
pasturing, beyond the woods. On the east and west, up 
and down the river, were cultivated farms. Those on the 
east were, in their order, the Brijsh, L. Beaubien, A. Beau- 
bien, C. Moran, L. Moran, Rivard, Mullett, Guoin, Riopelle, 
Dequindre, Witherell, St. Aubin, Dubois, James Campau, 
Chene, Joseph Campau, McDougall, B. Chapoton, G. Hunt. 
W. B. Hunt, Leib, Meldrum, Beaufait, L. Chapoton, Church, 
Moross and Van Dyke farms. On the west, the Cass, Jones, 
Forsyth, Labrosse, Baker, Woodbridge, Lognon, Thompson, 
Latferty, P. Godfrey, La Fontaine, Stanton, Loranger, J. 
Godfrey, G. Godfrey, Brevoort, Porter, A. Campau, B. Hub- 
bard and J. B. Campau farms, all of which have long since 



SKETCHES OE DETROIT. 125 

ceased to be cultivated, and are platted into city lots — with 
a hundred streets built up with stores, manufactories, shops 
and dwellings, owned and occupied by a dense, thrifty and 
enterprising popnlation. 

PUBLIC GROUNDS. 

The wide avenues and public parks and squares, in the 
original plat of the city, made by the Governor and Judges, 
under authority granted by Act of Congress, after the old 
town was destroyed by fire in 1805, are evidences and endur- 
ing monuments of their wisdom, good taste and judgment, 
eliciting enthusiastic commendations from strangers who 
visit us, which besides being adornments of an attractive 
character, are of vast utility in ventilating the city, and 
rendering it more salubrious, and in arresting the spread of 
fires. The plan was designed by Judge Woodward, and is 
commonly called "' Woodward's plan," and it is tit and due 
to his memoi-y that the broad avenue — 120 feet wide — run- 
nintr through its centre, from the river to its northern limits, 
should bear his name, " Woodward avenue," although he 
himself disclaimed the honor, saying, "it was so named 
because it extended wood-ward, from the river to the 
woods." 

Besides the broad avenues of 100, 120 and 200 feet wide, 
there are squares and parks as follows : 

Campus Martius — Military Square — 400 x 600 feet, in 
which are the City Hall and Soldiers and Sailors' Monu- 
ment. 

Grand Circus, a half circle, crossed in the center by 
Woodward avenue, dividing it into two parks, with foun- 
tains, trees, etc., in each, is 500x1,000 feet. 

Centre Park has a front on Gratiot avenue of 212 feet, 
in which is the Public Library, surrounded by trees and a 
well kept lawn. 

Capitol Park, so named, it having been the site of the old 



126 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Territorial capitol, is 168 feet front on State street, in which 
is the Detroit High School. 

East Park, triangular, has a frontage of 166 feet on 
Farmer, Farrar and Bates streets, each 50 feet in width, in 
which is located the Central Police Station. 

West Park, triangular, surrounded by State, Park and 
Palmer streets, each 50 feet in width. It has a frontage on 
State street of 168 feet. It is embellished with trees, walks, 
lawns, fountain, etc. 

Besides the above there are some half a dozen small parks, 
in the new additions, tastefully improved with trees, walks, 
lawns and fountains, and besides all which, there at the head 
of the Detroit river, at its entrance to Lake St. Clair, is 750 
acres of forest trees on 

Belle Isle Park. 

" Detroit has her treasures, refreshing and free, 
On this link of these lakes, as they roll to the sea, 
"1 Wliere traffic can prosper and beauty can smile, 

As they charm us to day from her park on the isle." 

Lambie. 

The grounds at Fort Wayne, a military post, three miles dis- 
tant from the City Hall, reached by horse cars, is one of the 
most interesting, delightful and picturesque places in the 
neighborhood of the city. It is situated on the bank of the 
river just where it turns from a westerly to a southerly 
course, and opposite the quaint, ancient village of Sand- 
wich, Canada. Looking east, one has a commanding view 
of the river for miles, with Belle Isle Park at the head, 
dividing the waters flowing into it from Lake St. Clair ; of 
the villages of Windsor and Walkertown, on the Canada 
shore, and of the " City of the Straits," with its long line of 
shipping at its five miles of docks, and its towering eleva- 
tors and hundred church towers. 




7,'Smm 



■■i5*J,^E=" 




wntiBiiiiiiijMiPlS!! 



FOUNTAIN WEST GRAND CIRCUS PARK, 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 129 



BY-GONES— OLD LAND-MARKS. 

"All things decay with time; the forest sees 
The growth and downfall'of her aged trees; 
The timber tall, which three-score lustres stood, 
The proud dictator of the state-like wood — 
I mean the sovereign of all plants, the oak — 
Droops, dies and falls without the cleaver's stroke. 

Fifty-six years, the time of the residence of the writer in 
Detroit, is not a very long period, but many changes take 
place, and events occnr within that time, and in the past it 
comprehends an eventful period in the history of the West, 
and particularly of the cities of tlie lakes. Within that 
time Detroit has grown from a mere military and fur tr9,d- 
ing post, with a po23ulation of about 1,500 to be a great 
commercial and manufacturing city, containing a population 
of about 150,000. Of the 230 actively engaged in business 
at the commencement of that period, and whose names are 
remembered by the writer, only seven survive. All the others 
have passed from earth, forcibly reminding us of the solemn 
trutli that " man that is born of woman is of few days," and 
that 

" We must all die; 
All leave ourselves, it matters not where, when, 
Nor how, so we die well." 

The site and the strait on the bank of which it is located 
are ail that remains of the city at the commencement of that 
period, except the old French stone church of St. Ann, the 
first house of worship erected after the destruction of the 
town by hre, and even this lias been despoiled of the five 
steeples it then had. 

The wood Presbyterian Church was on the northeast cor- 
ner of Woodward avenue and Larned street. Its pastor, E.ev. 
Noah M. Wells, of great personal popularity even outside of 



130 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

his special charge, whose days were long in the land, preached 
after passing the age of four score and ten years occasion- 
ally until within two years of his deatli at the advanced age 
of 98 years, which occurred in 1879. His funeral took place 
in this city in the third church erected by the society of which 
he had been the pastor a half century before. St. Paul's 
Episcopal Church was in the same square on Woodward ave- 
nue ; the Methodist brick church far out on tlie commons 
near where the Public Library now stands ; the good Father 
Richards' Mount Calvary on the grounds of St. Ann's 
Church, raised witli earth from the razed embankment of 
the English fort built during the American revolution. 

The Protestant Cemetery adjoined the Presbyterian, and 
that of the Roman Catholics, the Church of St. Ann. 

The brick Academy or University, 24x50 feet, fronting on 
Bates street was built on the Protestant Cemetery by the cor- 
poration known as "The Catholepistemaid or University of 
Michigania ;" the old school house with its cupola and bell, 
the only one of the kind west of Lake Erie, was on Griswold 
street where the elegant seven story Campau building has 
just been erected. The school house was built by that patri- 
arch the late Joseph Campau, and extended well out beyond 
the present line of the street. The street was to be widened 
and Mr. Campau resisted, deeming the award of the jury in- 
sufficient compensation, when the court antliorized the city 
to saw down through it on the line establislied and remove 
that part of it falling into the street, which was done. 

The Government Council House, the second story of 
which was built by the Free Masons and used as their lodge 
room, where the Firemen's Hall now is, was on the southwest 
corner of Jefferson avenue and Randolph street ; the United 
States stone arsenal, on the north westcorner of Jefferson ave- 
nue and Wayne street, where the writer, in 1832, saw General 
Scott, en route to the seat of the Black Hawk war, in his shirt 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 131 

sleeves, selecting and loading into carts, such munitions as 
he required, while on board his boat, the Sheldon Thompson, 
at the dock, the cholera raged fearfully among his troops, 
scarce well ones enough to take care of the sick. No "fuss 
and feathers" there. The government brick store house, its 
walls still pierced with round shot from the opposite Cana- 
dian shore during the war of 1812, was on the river bank 
opposite the arsenal ; the stone magazine in Congress street 
near Wayne street, with its subterranean pathway to the 
arsenal and Fort Shelby on the terrace beyond ; the fort 
covered most of the space between Congress and Lafayette 
and Griswold and Wayne streets ; the cantonment buildings 
west, between Congress and Fort streets ; the earth fort in 
Judge Sibley's field west of Woodward avenue, hastily 
thrown up by Captain Porter with a portion of Wayne's 
army tlie night before he entered and took possession of 
the city, in 1796. During the war of 1812 the Indians 
became troublesome by emerging from the adjacent woods 
and driving off cattle, etc, and while a citizen, Mr. McMillan 
and a young son, were out in search of his cow, he was killed 
and scalped, and his son taken and held captive for several 
years. After that the citizens placed a cannon on the 
fort and kept a guard there to protect the inhabitants. The 
fort was there as late as 1830. The stores, shops and oifices 
of the Indian Department were on the high bold bank of the 
river, south of the road on the Cass farm opposite the resi- 
dence of Governor Cass, where in front of which tlie writer 
one Sunday evening witnessed an Indian war dance in full 
feather and paint by a number of Winnebago chiefs around 
a fire under a sap kettle in which white dog soup was boil- 
ing. The postoffice, in James Abbott's building, was on 
Woodward Avenue, in which was the American Fur Com- 
pany's store, of which Mr. Abbott was agent. 

The Territorial brick Capitol, where now is the High 



132 : SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

School was at the liead of Grriswold street, and the Large 
stone jail in front of which, in 1831, the writer witnessed the 
execution of the last death sentence in Michigan, stood, 
where now is the Public Library. The public houses were 
the Taverns, 

" Where the village statesmen talked with looks profound, . 
And news much older than their ale went round." 

(Often no mail from the East was received for two or three 
weeks) ; the " Steamboat Hotel " — Uncle Ben's " — corner 
of Woodbridge and Randolph streets, proprietor Capt. Ben- 
jamin Woodworth, brother of the printer poet, author of 
"The Old Oaken Bucket;" Richard Smith's Hotel, west 
side of Woodward avenue, between Jefferson avenue and 
Woodbridge street ; the Godfrey House, nearly opposite ; 
Pat Palmer's Tavern, south side of Jeiferson avenue, east of 
Bates street ; the Saguinash Hotel, on Jefferson avenue, near 
where now is the Michigan Exchange ; Cliff's Tavern, far 
out Woodward avenue, near the Grand Circus ; the Yellow 
Tavern, on the west side of Woodward avenue, near the 
Grand Circus, which at that time was the only house on that 
side of the avenue, between Campus Martius and the woods, 
— there being a dry ridge there, it was the favorite militia 
drill ground, where they were put through the exercise ac- 
cording to Steuben, with the old flint-lock muskets; Garri- 
son's Yankee Boarding House, always overflowing full, 
fronting Bates street, on the rear half of the lot now occu- 
pied by the Banner Toljacco Company. 

The first public market, with its cobble-paved floor, built 
in 1816, at a cost of $1,600, by Benjamin Woodworth, con- 
tractor, in Woodward avenue, just south of Jefferson ave- 
nue, also served as a whipping post, where culprits were 
tied up and the rawhide applied to their bare backs, and 
an auction mart where vagrants were publicly sold out to 
service. The last sale and last whipping were witnessed 
by the writer more than a half century ago. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 133 

Governor Ilnll's Mansion, built in 1807, on the site 
where the Bicldl^ House stands, was the first brick build- 
ing in Michigan. It was a square house, with a spacious 
hall in the centre, two high stories on a high basement. At 
the close of the war of^ 1812 it and the extensive grounds 
were purchased by the late Major John Biddle, brother of 
Nicholas Biddle, President of the old United States Bank, 
who distinguished himself at the Battle of Lnndy's Lane. 
He was sent at the close of the war to collect and 
take charge of the military stores here. The house was 
occupied by him many j^ears as his residence, and in the 
basement was the United States Land Office, of which he 
was Register. Subsequently it was converted into a hotel, 
and called successively Wales Hotel and American Hotel. 
It was burned in the great lire of 1818, when nine acres 
were burned over. The pi-esent Biddle House was built on 
its site by a stock company, and finally Major Biddle became 
the exclusive owner, and it is still owned by his heirs. The 
brick residence and extensive fruit garden of Judge Sibley 
were opposite. The Bank of Michigan, fornierly the Detroit 
Bank, was opposite the Firemen's Hall. The homestead of the 
late Joseph Cam pan, south side of Jefferson avenue, east of 
Griswold street, the lirst house built after the fire of 1805, 
was built on the same foundation of the one burned, which 
foundation was laid in 1750, and was the foundation of the 
mess house of the officers in Fort Pontchartrain, constructed 
by the French Government in 1701. Previous to which the 
site of this fort was occupied by an Indian village by the 
Iroquois tribe. 

The Governor Cass Mansion, fronting the river on the 
Cass farm, was built by Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, and 
occupied by many of the early commandants of Detroit, and 
in it Major General Alexander Macomb was born. Re- 
ferring to its eccentric portico, with its pyramidal roof reach- 



134 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

ing above the eaves, Colonel Henry Whiting, A. Q. M., in a 
humorous poem on the "Age of Steam," in 1830, said of it : 

" Next to the bank, in antique guise, 
The Cass-tle of Cass-ina lies, 
Whose porch, that some pagot fit, 
Disturbed with doubts McKenney's wit. 
Who thought, 'tis said, when first he scanned it, 
Perhaps some Mandarin had planned it." 

The Ox grist mill was on the river beach, below the Indian 
storehouse opposite ; the elevated town pump at the foot of 
Randolpli street, under which barrels in carts could be filled 
with water to supply the inhabitants, which was delivered 
for one shilling per barrel ; the Hydraulic Pumping Works, 
were erected in 1827, foot of Randolph street, with a forty- 
gallon cask at the top of a cupola, forty feet high, into which 
water was elevated by horse-power furnished from the wool 
carding and full cloth factory — the only one ever here — 
thence the water was conveyed by gravity in wood pipes to 
a reservoir, 16x16 feet square, and 6 feet deep, made of oak 
plank, on the rear of the lot where now is Firemen's Hall, 
from thence it was convej^ed in wood pipes to the residences 
of the principal citizens, who then all lived on Jefferson 
avenue and Woodbridge street. 

The tall, picketed, extensive " Deer Park " — amid scrub 
oaks, on the Cass farm, about where Michigan avenue now 
crosses it — was the English commandant's who succeeded 
Pontiac as "the king and lord of all this country." The 
" River Savoyard," with its willow-skirted banks running 
between the first and second terraces across the entire width 
of the city ; the old wind grist mills that lined the banks of 
the river ; the ferry-house opposite the city across the strait, 
where Captain Burtis' catamaran horse-boat ferry landed ; 
the elevated stocks, built of heavy oak timber, on the river 
bank near Sandwich, for the punishment of culprits guilty 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 137 

of minor offences, — all are gone. Gone too are all the 
active men here of that day, except Hon. Daniel Goodwin, 
Col. John Winder, Amos Chaffee, C. Hurlbnt, Jonathan 
L. King, Samuel Hopkins of St. Clair, and Richard Bntler 
of Mt. Clemens. The sensitiveness of the sex forbids 
naming the surviving women, of whom there are several. 
The young men of that day still living here, are, Levi E. 
Dolson, Sproat Sibley, John Owen, Thomas Lewis, Eben N. 
Willcox, R. E. Roberts, Robert Stead, Friend Palmer, E. 
V. Cicotte, Alex. Chapoton, Wm. N. Carpenter, Henry Doty. 

"When musing on companions gone, 
We doubly feel ourselves alone." 

Still there is assui-ance of this truth, nothing is that wholly 
dies. Carlyle wrote, " The drop which thou shakest from 
thy wet hand rests not where it falls ; it is nearing the tropic 
of Cancer. How came it to evaporate and not lie motionless ? 
Thinkest thou then there is aught that God hath made that 
is motionless, without force and utterly dead." 

" Sure there is none but fears a future state; 
And when the most obdurate swear they do not. 
Their trembling hearts belie their boasting tongues." 

The death roll of men actively engaged in the affairs of 
life in Detroit in 1827, is as follows : Lewis Cass, William 
Woodbridge, Solomon Sibley, James Witherell, B. F. H. 
Witherell, Henry Chipman, John R. Williams, John Trum- 
bull, James May, James Abbott, Robert Abbott, John Biddle, 
Jonathan Kearsley, Elon Farnsworth, Shubael Conant, Chas. 
Moran, David Cooper, Abram C. Canniff, Thomas Palmer, 
Friend Palmer, John Palmer, Mason Palmer, Charles Jack- 
son, Joseph Jackson, John Whipple, Thomas Rowland, Henry 
M. Campbell, Charles Larned, Henry S. Cole, George A. 
O'Keeffe, Robert A. Forsyth, Benj. B. Kerchevall, John Ab- 
bott, Oliver Newberry, Walter L. Newberry, Peter J. Des- 



138 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

nojers, Peter Desnoyers, Rev. I*Toah M. "Wells, Harvey Wil- 
liams, Rene Marsac, Win. Brewster, Alexander D. Fraser, 
Charles C. Trowbridge. Dr. John L. Whiting, E. A. Brush, 
Charles Brush, John Roberts, Griffith Roberts, Ellis Roberts, 
Joseph Campau, Barnabe Cainpan, Tunis S. Wendell, John 
P. Sheldon, Thomas C. Sheldon, Ebenezer Reed, Thomas S. 
Knapp, Abram Cook, Levi Cook, Orville Cook, John Cook, 
Patrick Palmer, Oliver W. Miller, Abraham Edwards, Capt. 
Perkins, John Mullett, Tliomas B. Clark, E. Chapoton, Tim- 
othy Fales, John Farrar, John Farmer, Nathaniel Prouty, 
I. W. Woolsey, Wm. Stead, Cullen Brown, Dr. Wm. Brown, 
Augustus S. Porter, Benjamin Woodworth, Ralph Wadhams, 
Reynolds Gillett, Shadrick Gillett, Chauncy Payne, George 
McDougall, Robert McDougall, Elijah Converse, Thomas J. 
Owen, Bethuel Farrand, Jerry Dean, Dr. McCroskey, Dr. 
Marshall Chapin, Dr. R. S. Rice, Dr. Hendrie, Dr. Henry, 
Dr. Ebenezer Hurd, Dr. T. B. Clark, Melvin Dorr, J. R. 
Dorr, DeGarmo Jones, H. V. Disbrow, Francis Cicotte, 
James Cicotte, Lambert Lafoy, A. Beaubien, Rev. Gabriel 
Richard, Rev. D. Cadle, Antoine Dequindre, Julius Eldred, 
David French, Henry Saunderson, Felix Hinchman, Major 
Henry Whiting, Gen. Hugh Brady, Gen. B. F. Earned, 
J. Y. R. Ten Eyck, Robert Smart, Joseph Spencer, 
John McDonell, D. C. McKinstry, Lewis Devenport, 
Jeremiah Moore, John Scott, Col. Anderson, Edward 
Brooks, Austin E. Wing, James Williams, J. B. Vallee, 
Alva Ewers, Maj. H. B. Brevoort, John Burtis, Wra. Russell, 
John Garrison, John J. Garrison, Michael Hale, John Hale, 
Col. Baker, D. B. Cole, S. T. Dyson, Richard Smith, John 
Smith, John Noble, Gabriel Godfrey, Peter Godfrey, N. B. 
Carpenter, Knowles Hall, E. Ray, Wm. Thorn, Obed Wait, 
P. Cote, Samuel Day, Wm. Durell, Barney Moon, J. T. 
Penny, Ellis Doty, S. Rossiter, Henry Berthelet, Augustus 
Berthelet, Israel Noble, Adna Merritt, Theophilus Metty, 
John B. Vernier dit Laducie;-, Abner Wells, Charles Will- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 139 

COX, James Hanmer, Benjamin Chittenden, Asa Madison, 
Stephen Bain, Alexander Campbell, Kobert McNiff, David 
Dodemead, Cornelius Scanlon, John E. Schwarz, W. B. 
Hunt, George Hunt, Jedediah Hunt, Elliott Gray, Jolm D. 
Cray, Samuel Colwell, Darius Lamson, Joseph Andre, John 
Pherson, F. P. Browning, Francis St. Aubin, Francis Rivard, 
John L. Leib, James Leib, William A. Fletcher, Samuel 
Reed, Dominique Riopelle, Francis Thibault, John Truax, 
Thomas Stead, Peter Beaubien, John Bronsori, Owen Aid- 
rich, James Beaubien, S. Beach, Harvey Griswold, J. O. 
Lewis, Charles Howard, Conrad Seek, L. Phelps, Elias 
Hawley, Gildersleeve Hurd, Juba Barrows, J. Sears, James 
Knaggs, Jonathan Keeney, Chauncy Bush, A. McLarran, W. 
Hoyt, Stephen Wells, James Trowbridge, Francis Brewster, 
John J. Deming, Wm. Bartlow, Benjamin Clark, John 
Lebot, Joseph Amlin, J. W. Hunter, A. McArthur, Thomas 
Dare, James Cook, Timothy Dequindre, G. Mott Williams. 

NOMEN0LA.TURE OF SOME OF THE THOROUGHFARES. 

In the original plan of the Governor and Judges, five of 
the avenues were named in honor of the five first presidents 
of the United States, — Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Mad- 
ison and Monroe. 

Woodward avenue and Bates street were named after two 
of the first judges. 

Woodward avenue originally terminated at the Grand 
Circus, which was then a full circle 1,000 feet in diameter. 
Before the plan, which was made by Judge Woodward, was 
signed and recorded, Judge Woodward was called to Wash- 
ington, a long journey in those days; and he was necessarily 
absent a length of time. During his absence at a meeting 
held by Governor Hull and Judges Witherell and Bates, it 
was decided to lay out the land beyond the circus and the 
north half of the circus into park lots, and extend a street of 
turnpike width {Q6 feet) to the woods, which street they 



140 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

named Witlierell street, wliich name it bore until a few 
years since, wlien it also was given the name of Woodward. 
On his return. Judge Woodward's attention was called to 
what had been done, when he said, "You have given the 
street an appropriate name, for you have withered all my 
plan," and charged Witlierell with egotism in naming the 
street after himself, when he retorted about his (Wood- 
ward's) egotism in giving the broad avenue his name, when 
Woodward replied, " I did nothing of the kind ; it was so 
named because it ran wood- ward, from the river to the 
woods." There are people who now think it derives its 
name from the caase named by the Judge, its course towards 
the woods. 

Griswold street was named after Stanley Griswold, the 
first Secretary of the Territory of Michigan, and Atwater 
street after Reuben Atwater, who succeeded Grriswold as 
Secretary. 

Woodbridge street was named after Gov. Woodbridge, 
who was appointed Secretary on the reorganization of the 
government after Hull's surrender. 

Wayne street was named after Gen. Wayne, " Mad An- 
thony," or " Long Knife," as the Indians called him. 

Shelby street after Gov. Shelby of Kentucky, who at the 
age of 66 years commanded in person the Kentucky Volun- 
teers at the Battle of the River Thames. 

Randolph street after John Randolph of Roanoak. 

Rowland street, after Major Thomas Rowland, an officer 
in Hull's army, who refused to submit to the surrender, first 
editor of the Detroit Advertiser. 

Cass street, after Gov. Cass, who succeeded Hull after the 
surrender. 

Farmer and Farrar streets after John Farmer and John 
Farrar, who were the first residents on the respective streets 
bearino; their names. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 14 J 

John R. street and Williams street taken together perpet- 
uate the name of Gen. John R. Williams, the first Mayor of 
Detroit. 

La Fayette avenne was named after the renowned Mar- 
quis. 

Macomb avenue was named in honor of Major General 
Alexander Macomb, U. S. A., who was born here. 

Fort street west took its name from its covering a portion 
of the site of Fort Shelby. It has a further significance at 
the present time from its leading to Fort Wayne. 

Sibley street w^as named after Judge Solomon Sibley, the 
first American to settle in Detroit after the United States 
took possession — the owner of the Park lot through which 
it was laid out, and Sproat street after his son, Col. Sproat 
Sibley. 

George street and DufReld street together, perpetuate the 
name of Kev. George DufHeld, Pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church. 

Palmer street, after Thomas Palmer, who built the first 
Territorial capitol and jail. 

Brush street, after Col. Elijah Brush, an officer in Hull's 
army at the time of the surrender, and owner of the farm 
through which it runs. 

Alfred street was named by the late E. A. Brush after his 
brother. Dr. Alfred Brush ; Adelaide street in memory of 
his mother, and Edmond street after a lamented deceased 
son. 

Stimson Place after Benjamin Stimson, owner of the Park 
lot through which it is laid out. 

Beanbien, Rivard, Giioin, Riopelle, Mullet, Dequindre, St. 
Aubin. Dubois, Chene, McDougall and Joseph Campau 
streets, were named after the owners of the farms respect- 
ively through which they run. 

Trumbull avenue was named in honor of John Trumbull, 
the poet of the Revolution, author of '•' McFingal," who 



142 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

died at the residence of Grovernor Woodbridge, his son-in- 
law, on his farm, through which the avenue runs. 

Croghan street was named in honor of Major George Cro- 
ghan, aged 21 years, who with a garrison of 167 and one six 
pounder, held Fort Stephenson against a force of 490 Britisli 
regulars under General Proctor, and about 2,500 Indians, 
under the Chief Tecumseh, saying in reply to a demand to 
surrender, sent by flag of truce, " Tell Gen. Proctor if he 
wants this fort, to come and take it, Major Croghan never 
surrenders." 

Porter street, in honor of Capt. Porter, who raised the 
first United States flag in Michigan. 

Gratiot avenue was so named because it extended to Fort 
Gratiot. It was laid out and ground broken on it by the 
General Government as a military road in 1828, and runs in 
a straight line for sixty miles, and it is safe to say that it is 
the longest straight away street leading out of the city. 

Adair street, after Hon. William Adair, along the line of 
whose nursery and green-house grounds it extends. 

Wight street, after Hon. Buckminster Wight, owner of a 
large tract of land through which it extended. 

THEATBICALS. 

The citizens of Detroit always manifested an interest in 
theatrical entertainments. As early as 1825 the ofiicers of 
Fort Shelby, among whom was the veteran journalist James 
Watson Webb, then a Lieutenant, gave theatrical entertain- 
ments in one of the cantonment buildings, to which citizens 
generally received complimentary tickets. After the with- 
drawal of the troops from here in 1826, a " Thespian 
Society " was formed by leading citizens, amateurs, who 
gave entertainments, to which citizens received compliment- 
ary invitation. Major John Biddle and Col. Edward Brooks 
were members of the society. About 1830 a professional 
theatrical company, under the management of Parsons and 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 143 

Dean, came here from Louisville, Kentucky, and there being 
no hall or proper place of sufficient size for them, the enter- 
prising proprietor of the Steamboat Hotel, corner of Wood- 
bridge and Randolpii streets, Capt. Benjamin Woodworth 
converted the loft over the large stable, in the rear of the 
hotel, into a very comfortable theatre, the entrance to which 
was through the hall on the second floor of the hotel. The 
principal actors were Mr. Parsons, Mr. Dean, father of Julia 
Dean, William Forrest, and Miss Clark, a beautiful and ac- 
complished yomig lady, all of whom were popular with the 
people, and their performances being of higher order than 
any before rendered here — and I might add equal to any 
since — their long stay here, running through several months, 
was to them a pecuniarj'^ success, notwithstanding the popu- 
lation at that time was but little more than 2,000. 

An amusing incident which occurred at one of the per- 
formances is worth mentioning. The play was the " Mana- 
gers in Distress." Parsons had sent Forrest out to bring in 
the actors (bear in mind they were over the horses' stable.) 
Forrest coming on a run on the stage. Parsons frantically 
asked, " Where are the actors?" 

Forrest, dropping his head and arms, replied : " There's 
nary one in the stalls, sir." 

This brought down the house equal to Placide's " Toby or 
not Toby," at the old Park. Mr. Parson's great character was 
" Othello," and it was said of iiim after leaving Detroit, and 
while performing in a Soutliern city, where, in a Presbyte- 
rian church a great revival of religion was in progress, that 
one night he was billed for "Othello." After the house 
was well tilled the manager appeared in front of the curtain 
and said : " Mr. Parsons is at the Presbyterian church ; he 
having been suddenly converted, will not appear, and we 
are compelled to substitute something else for " Othello." 

At this announcement a large number left, and going into 
the gallery of the church, called for " Othello," which being 



144 SKETCITES OF DETROIT. 

repeated several times, Mr. Parsons arose and walked slowly 
down the broad aisle ; stopping, and looking up pleasantly to 
his theatrical friends in the gallery, he said, in his usual 
clear tone, " Farewell ! Othello's occupation's gone !" and 
with bowed head and drooping arms he remained standing 
for a few moments, when he resumed his seat, and his thea- 
trical admirers quietly withdrew from the churcli, Mr. Par- 
sons from that time left the stage for the pulpit, which he 
continued to occupy until his death, which occurred about 
eight years ago. 

Mrs. Parsons was an estimable lady and a member of the 
Presbyterian church, and although accompanying her hus- 
band on his theatrical tours, while here, it was said, she had 
never been inside a theatre. The Metliodists, having built a 
church more central on the northeast corner of Woodward 
avenue and Congress street, vacated their brick meeting 
house on the southeast corner of Gratiot and Farrar streets, 
which was the second Protestant church built here, and sold 
it to Major D. C. McKinstry, who fitted it up for a theatre- 
It was opened in 1835, under the management of Dean 
& McKinny, with Charlotte Cnshraan as the star actress, 
who held the boards, drawing crowded houses for over a 
month. The seating capacity of the theatre was* only 400, 
but such was the popular attraction of Miss Cushman, all 
standing room was nightly tilled. Tickets of admission were 
twenty-five cents, and the nightly receipts could not have 
exceeded $125, yet it was regarded as a great financial suc- 
cess — so economical was the management in those days. But 
times have changed, "things ain't now as they use to has 
been." Edwin Forrest, the elder Booth, James E. Murdock, 
Dan Marble, Josh Silsbee and Hacket starred it at this the- 
atre. During the Patriot war of 1838-9, a benefit was given 
for the patriot cause. 

Encouraged by his success with this brick theatre, Major 
McKinstrj' was induced to build a large wooden theatre on 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 145 

the comer opposite, north side of Gratiot avenue. But the 
Presidential campaign of 1840, with the nightlj^ gatlierings 
in the Log Cabin to hear the eloquent speeches, stories of 
" Doctor Diable Encore," and the songs, " Tippecanoe and 
Tyler Too," " 'Tis the Ball a Rolling On," etc., with free 
drinks of "Hard Cider," and the antics of "that same old 
coon, sitting on a rail," provided a free entertainment for 
the masses, and he was forced to close the theatre for want 
of patronage. It was afterwards used as a furniture man- 
ufactory until it was burned, and for many years thereaf- 
ter there was no permanent theatre here ; the old City 
Hall was occasionally occupied by a travelling company, 
and concerts were frequent in the dining hall of the Na- 
tional Hotel. That veteran actor and manager, G. A. 
Hough, who is still actively engaged in the same pursuit, 
in 1844 rented the City Hall, which was not then used by 
the city — (the sessions of the Council being held in the old 
Firemen's Hall, northwest corner of Bates and Larned 
streets, in which also was the only city office — that of clerk), 
and gave theatrical entertainments there for three weeks. 
The admission was only twenty-live cents, and his average 
receipts were $120 per night, and his expenses, including 
salaries, did not exceed thirty dollars per night. He had 
a fair company, with W. G. l^oah as leading actor. The 
population here did not exceed 12,000 at that time, and 
some may be curious to know how he made such success 
here nearly forty years ago. I will let Garry tell. He 
says : " I was on the temperance plan and' my dramas— 
I had only two — ran in that groove. The great 

WasMngt^nian Movement 

at that time was taking the country by storm. At the 
East and in the West, the moral suasion system, inaugur- 
ated two years before by the six reformed bummers of 
Baltimore, had taken a strong hold upon the moral ele- 



146 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

ment of tlie country, and was regarded as the best of all 
methods yet devised to make rum-drinking disreputable. 
The belief grew and strengthened that the drunkard could 
be more permanently reclaimed by love than by force. 
On this idea two dramas, 'The Brothers,' and the 'Drunk- 
ard's Warning,' were written. Both were good. In par- 
ticular, I regarded 'The Brothers' very powerful and 
effective; and as a rule at the conclusion of each perform- 
ance the temperance pledge was circulated among the 
audience, and a good many names were obtained. This 
was the moral point of the show. The pecuniary point 
was to secure as many twenty-live cent pieces as possible 
at the door." Mr. Hough came here again tiie following 
summer, when, he says, he found Israel S. Merritt — an 
old acquaintance — giving theatrical entertainments in the 
City Hall. ''I called on him," he said, "and found that 
he was on my track, performing a temperance drama. 
As I had made something of a reputation here the year 
previous, and was still remembered, Merritt induced me 
to act for him two nights. I did so. He then left town, 
and [ never saw him but once afterwards. But how dif- 
ferent were his circumstances. I met him on Broadway, 
in New York. He was driving four-in-hand, and drew 
up in front of the Metropolitan Hotel. It was not Isaac 
S. Merritt then, but Isaac Merritt Singer, the inventor 
of the sewing machine which bears his name." 

In 1846 a company, under the management of Mr. Pot- 
ter, gave theatrical entertainments at the City Hall. 

The next theatrical venture in Detroit was in 1848, 
when Messrs. Parker & Ellis, managers of a theatre in 
Syracuse, New York, came here and leased a lot on Jef- 
ferson avenue, opposite the Biddle House, and induced 
Mr. William Burnell, a master builder here, to build them 
a theatre thereon, he holding a lien for its cost. Parker 
and Ellis, both actors, shrewd and enterprising, had in- 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 147 

tended making Syracuse their place in winter and Detroit in 
sammer. In this they misjudged both. Tlieatre-goers in 
Detroit were not in sufficient numbers to give a paying 
patronage, at least during the heat of summer, and Syra- 
cuse failing them in the winter, they were obliged to 
succumb, and the theatre here was sold to James Sher- 
lock, under whose management it was run with indiffer- 
ent success until 1854, when it was leased to Mr. A. 
McFarland, who changed its name to " Metropolitan," 
and started off with a good stock company, in which 
were Celia and Olive Logan and Lawrence Barrett. It 
was here that the latter made his first efforts in the 
drama. The following season, Mr. Hough, with Susan 
and Kate Denin, sisters, both young, still in their teens, 
beautiful, sprightly and attractive, filled a very success- 
ful engagement. In 1858 McFarland transferred the con- 
tract to Mr. E. T. Sherlock, when Mr. Hough, with 
Miss Sallie St. Clair, a talented and popular actress, 
filled an engagement, gaining the applause of all patrons. 

In 1860 the Metropolitan was turned into a variety 
theatre, and called " Theatre Comique," Mr. Charles M. 
Welsh was owner and manager, and successfully ran it 
for many years. It was closed two or three years ago, 
and is now occupied as a livery and coupe stable. 

Edwin Forrest, Charlotte Cushman, Mrs. McClui'e, Mr. 
Isherwood, Dan Marble, Miss Julia Dean, the elder Booth, 
J. Wilkes Booth, James E. Murdock, Hackett, William 
Forrest the comedian, Silsbee, and other stars, besides those 
before mentioned, appeared at the Jefferson A.venue Theatre. 

The foregoing sketch of the history of the theatres in De- 
troit covers a period of half a century, from 1825. 

Detroit now has four prominent theatres, the Detroit, 
Whitney's Grand, White's Grand, and the Park, with a 
seating capacity of about 5,000. 



148 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



TIME S CHANGES. 



Three score years ago a venerable and intelligent United 
States Senator opposed a bill before Congress making an 
appropriation to open turnpikes from Detroit through the 
dense forests covering the government lands in Michigan, 
to induce settlement and augment the sales of public land, 
and said : " That being but unfrequentlj travelled it 
would soon be obstructed by a growth of trees, leaving 
the forest as impassable as ever." Such was the esti- 
mate by a learned Senator of the progress of the set- 
tlement of the great West, where since eight populous 
States have been added to the galaxy of the Union, 
carved out of the Western forests. About fifty years 
years ago, when the population was about 5,000, the writer 
heard a member of our City Council while advocating 
an appropriation for some public improvement, make the 
prediction that " within the life of some present, Detroit 
would contain a population of 20,000," and he has seen 
it reach seven times that number. 

Within the past three score years there has come to 
us the following useful devices and discoveries : The steel 
carriage spring, in place of the leather thorough-braces 
and spring pole ; the locomotive and palace car, in place 
of the horse stage coach ; the steel railroad, in place of 
the corduroy and McAdam road ; the electric telegraph 
and telephone, in place of the numerical signal telegraph ; 
the steam reaper and thrasher, in place of the cradle and 
flail ; the percussion cap and breech-loader, in place of 
the fiint-lock musket ; the petroleum and electric light, 
in place of the tallow dip and whale oil rush-light ; 
the " loco-foco " or friction lighter, in place of the flint, 
steel and tinder box; palace steam ferries, in place of 
the horse-boat and canoe plying across our majestic river. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT, 149 

And in this ancient city of the strait we have tlie coach, 
'bus, coupe and bnga;y, in place 

" Of French charettes bouncing along, les filles 
All seated a la Turque upon the soft 
Warm buffaloes, and bobbing up and down 
With each jerk of that relic of the Old 

Regime. " 

SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS. 

No surveys of land had been made by the government 
until 1816, and the first sales of land by the government 
in Michigan were made in 1818. The sales of public lands 
in 1820 were 2,300 acres. In 1836 there were 1,475,720 
acres sold, and the whole number of acres sold to that time 
was 2,992,910, for which the United States were paid 
$3,744,669.81. The price of the land was ten shil- 
lings per acre. For many years after the first farm set- 
tlements were made all of tlie produce of the farmers 
was required for home consumption, and the first export 
of flour from Michigan was made in 1827, when Messrs. 
Miller & Jermain, of Monroe, shipped 200 barrels to 
the East. The shipments from Detroit alone, in 1881, 
were 270,225 barrels of flour, 5,624,679 bushels of wheat, 
and of other grains, corn, oats, barley and rye, 731,123 
bushels. 

MANUFACTURES, ETC. 

The principal articles manufactured in Detroit are iron 
and steel, steam engines and boilers, mill machinery, railway 
cars and car-wheels, stoves, glass, pins, leather, boots and 
shoes, clothing, trunks, tobacco and cigars, confectionaries, 
chemicals, jDianos and organs, furniture and chairs, billiard 
tables, lumber, hoops, staves and lieading, ale, beer and malt. 
The leading manufactories are incorporated stock companies, 
of which there are about one hundred and fifty. The total 
number of establishments of all kinds in the city is about 
one thousand, employing a capital, as reported for 1882, of 
$20,932,700, and giving employment to 25,563 hands. 



150 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

Amount of annual wao;es paid, $9,005,438 ; value of material 
consumed, $25,201,545, and the product was $48,459,196. 

During the year ending January 1st, 1883, there were 
1,676 buihiings erected, at a cost of more than $3,000,000. 

The Michigan Central Depot, now being erected, is estim- 
ated to cost $165,000. The new Union Depot and Elevator 
were recently completed at a cost of $350,000. The elevator 
has a capacity of a million and a half of bushels. 

Many of the buildings, both for residence and business 
purposes, erected here within the past few years would be 
regarded as first-class in any city. Among them may prop- 
erly be mentioned the iron-front blocks of stores of D. M. 
Ferry, Francis Palms and T. A. Parker, the Carpenter and 
Chandler blocks of stores. Wesson Block, Chamber of Com- 
merce, the Newberry & McMillan and D. J. Campau blocks, 
for banks and offices, all of which may be classed among the 
finest structures in the West, at least. A number of the 
residences, although costing far less, are as palatial as those 
of any other city. The estimated value of the D. J. Campau 
building and ground is $250,000. 

The bonded debt of the city, January 1st, 1883, was 
$2,008,060.08. Income of the sinking fund during the year 
was $318,815.86. The value of the property owned by the 
city is estimated to be $9,077,262.22. The value of the real 
and personal estate, as assessed for purposes of taxation in 
1882, was $94,891,407, and the tax levy was $1,652,000. 

There are twelve chartered banks in the city, with an 
aggregate capital of $3,700,000 ; deposits, $20,339,000 ; loans 
and discounts, $16,793,000. There are, besides, a number of 
private banking houses, employing, in the aggregate, a large 
amount of capital. 

Detroit has nearly one hundred miles of paved streets, 
about eighty miles of which is wood and the balance stone. 
About two hundred miles of water-mains; one hundred miles 
or gas-mains ; a large number of electric lights. 

There are in the service of the Fire Department thirteen 



SKETCHES OF DETROrT. 151 

steain fire-engines, three chemical engines, three hook and 
ladder trucks, one fire-escape, one salvage truck, and two 
supply wagons. The fire-alarm telegraph combines one hun- 
dred and twenty-six boxes and attachments, and one hundred 
and thirty miles of wire coimections. There are 1,039 street 
hydrants and one hundred and eighty-three street reservoirs. 
Total force, one hundred and forty-two men and sixty-five 
horses. 

The Police Force, including ofiicers, numbers two hundred 
men. 

There are in the city twenty-six miles of street rail- 
roads, giving employment to more than three hundred men 
and about seven hundred and fifty horses. 

The Telephone Exchange have thirty-three public tele- 
phone stations, and eleven hundred subscribers in the city, 
and connections with all the principal cities within a radius 
of one hundred miles. 

The Free Public Library contains about 60,000 volumes of 
books. There are two law libraries, an Episcopal clergymen's 
library, and a good library in the Young Men's Christian 
Association rooms. There are twenty-nine Public School 
buildings, with a seating capacity of 14,000. Tliere are two 
hundred and seventy-one teachers, of whom eleven only are 
males. Free night-schools are also maintained. Besides 
which there are a number of private seminaries and schools. 
Tiiere are ninety churches, seventeen of which are Roman 
Catholic and two Jewish. There are in the city two medi- 
cal colleges, fifteen hospitals and asylums. There are pub- 
lished in the city forty-five newspapers and periodicals of 
various kinds ; five of the papers are issued daily, three 
morning and two evening issues. 

Detroit, in many particulars, is the unrivalled city of the 
lakes. Its site and location is admirably adapted to com- 
mercial and mechanical business of every kind, and on a 
large scale, situated as it is on a magnificent river, never 
swollen by flood or shallowed by drouth, with safe anchorage 
everywhere. As a harbor it is excelled by few in the world, 



152 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

either in picturesqueness or safety. Its growth has been 
steady, healthy and natural, and the city of to-day is almost 
entirely the growth of the past half century. Portions 
of the city which previously were the very outskirts — ponds 
then existing on the Grand Circus and on the farms at the 
head of the "River Savoyard," where sportsmen hunted 
duck and plover, and commons where Indians captured and 
scalped peaceable citizens, — are now far within the thickly- 
settled and populated districts. The localities occupied by 
forts, cantonments, block-houses, magazines and navy-yards ; 
the potato fields, commons where cattle grazed, and Indians 
with their squaws had their games of ball, and grave-yards 
were, are now compactly covered with long rows of stores 
and warehouses, manufactories, mechanics' shops, princely 
dwellings and towering church-steeples, with a dense, thrifty 
and enterprising population, whose busy hum have so 
changed the scene that the ancient hahitant, and those born 
and reared in the land, are scarcely able to recognize it. As 
tlie poet might say : 

On lawn and slope — the redinan's late abode, 

The steam-horse rushes on an iron road, 

The steeple rises, and vast granaries groan 

With products of wide realms, by commerce made our own — 

Ponds where sportsmen hunted duck and plover, 

Now with parterres and parks are covered over. 

Green lanes through which the Imhitant, alone, 

Drove his cJmrette, to spacious streets have grown, 

Paved with cobbles which perplexed the shore 

Of his blue " strait," by trade not docked of yore — 

Strait whose clear depths no pirogue's keel could reach. 

Now sullenly give back the screw-tug's awful screech. 

Fresh from the 'Back Concessions" — what surprise 

Illumes Jean Crapeau's honest, wond'ring eyes — 

To see the terrace where the rampart frowned. 

With lofty piles of brick and mortar crowned. 

Alas ! what greater change upbraids the modern place. 

Containing now a less contented race; 

The simple virtues of the olden time 

Exchanged for coin — the more almighty dime. 




OLD PEAR TREES. 

Transplanted from France by the first Farm Settlers in Michigan, in 1749, 

Photographed in 1883. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 155 



THE OLD PEAR TREES.* 

By W. H. Coyle. 

[Written by request, for the compiler of these Remineseences, in 1849.] 

A Hundred years and more ye have stood, 

Through sunshine and through storm, 
And still like warriors clad iu mail, 

Ye lift your stalwart form. 

Proud in your might, ye challenge the wind, 

As in your palmy days; 
And ye laugh in scorn at the howling blast 

And the lightning's lurid blaze. 

Ye have seen the boy in his childhood play 

In your cool shades, blithe and brave, 
And have moaned with the evening summer breeze. 

O'er the old grandsire's grave. 

From your lofty tops, o'er the river blue. 

Ye have looked, long, long ago, 
As the savage leaped on the shining sands 

With scalping-knife and bow. 

Beneatli your leafy boughs the painted chief 

Has pitched his peaked tent. 
And the council fire, through your quivering leaves. 

Its silver smoke has sent. 

From the frontier fort ye have seen the flash, 

And heard the cannon's boom, 
Till the stars and stripes in victory waved 

Through the battle's glare and gloom. 

When the ancient city, by the flames. 

Ye saw it in ashes expire. 
But, like true sentinels, kept your posts 

In the blazing whirl of fire, 

*These trees were transplanted from that enchanted garden of Europe, " La Belle 
France," in 1749, by the first farmers, who brought them with them. Many of the 
trees still remain, bearing fruit, now one hundred and thirty-four years old. 



156 SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 

And where tall temples now lift their spires, 

And priests and people meet, 
Ye have seen the giant forest oak, 

And the wild deer bounding fleet. 

Where the white-sailed ship now rides the wave, 
Ye have watched the bark-canoe, 

And heard, in the night, the voyager's song, 
And the Indian's shrill halloo. 

The lingering few " vieux habitans," 

Look at ye with a sigh, 
And memory's tear-drop dims the gaze. 

While they think of the times gone by. 

Oh! those were honest and happy times, 

The simple days of old. 
When their forefathers quaffed and laughed, 

And lived for more iJian gold. 

One by one, like brown autumnal leaves, 
They are fast falling to the ground, 

And soon the last of that honored race 
Beneath the yew-tree will be found. 

Live on, old trees, in your hale, green age! 

Long, long may your shadows last, 
With your blossomed boughs and golden fruit, 

Loved emblems of the past. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 

The great chain of rivers and lakes, two thousand miles in 
extent, contain one-third of all the fresh water on the globe, 
and together, form the greatest bodj of inland navigable 
water in the world. 

The following will show, in a condensed form, estimates 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



159 



of tlie mean length, breadth, depth, area and elevation of the 
several bodies of water which compose the great chain : 









4i 
ft* 


a 
o . 

el a> 
W 

587 
560 
578 
578 
570 
565 
383 


Area in 

square 

miles. 


Lake Superior 


400 
100 
330 
340 
20 
340 
180 


80 
20 
70 
80 
18 
40 
35 


900 

500 

1,000 

1,000 

30 

84 

500 

30 


33 000 


Green Bay 


3,000 


Lake Michigan 

Lake Huron 


33,400 

20,400 

360 


Lake St. Clair. ... .... 


Lake Erie 


9,600 


Lake Ontario 


6,300 


River St. Lawrence 


940 












94,000 



The shores of the State of Michigan are washed by five of 
these lakes — Superior, Michigan, St. Clair, Huron and Erie. 

High mid Low Water. 

The watei'-level of the lakes is subject to variations, and 
many theories are advanced as to the cause of the variations. 
It is probable that it is solely due to the rain-fall, evapora- 
tion and prevalent direction of the wind. But before any 
satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at, observations must 
be made for a series of years at various points, not only along 
the chain of lakes, but also at all points within the rain-shed 
drained by them — comprising an area of 175,000 square 
miles. 

The water-level of the Detroit River is subject to varia- 
tions. The greatest variation recorded is six feet and four- 
tenths of a foot, the highest being in June, 1858, and the 
lowest in October, 1841. Protracted, heavy westerly winds 
have the effect to lower the water in the river, for the reason 
that such winds drive the water down Lake Erie below, 
while they set it back in Lakes St. -Clair and Huron above, 
and protracted, heavy easterly storms of wind have the effect 



160 SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 

to raise the water in the river, for the reason that they drive 
the waters down Lakes Hnron and St. Clair, while they hold 
it back in Lake Erie. The observations of the variations 
rnn back to 1819, when it was made by Major (later Major- 
Gen.) Henry Whiting. The observations are made from a 
fixed point on the Water- Works engine-honse, to which tlie 
point of observation of Major Whiting was referred by 
calcnlation. 

The Rain-Fall. 

In 1841, when tlie water was the lowest of which we have 
any record, the rain-fall at Detroit was only two feet 9.92 
inches during the year. In 1855, when it was but a few 
inches below the highest point recorded, the rain-fall was but 
a fraction less than six feet during the year. In 1858, when 
the water was at the highest point recorded, the rain-fall was 
only three feet four inches and four-tenths, and in 1859, the 
water continuing high, the rain-fall during the year was only 
two feet nine inches 61 2.10. 

The driest year of any recorded was in 1865, when the 
rain-fall was but a fraction more than one foot nine inches. 
In 1871, the year of the great Chicago lire, there was but a 
fraction more. Those were the two driest years on record. 

The average rain-fall at Detroit for twenty-years, from 
1840 to 1860, was three feet 9.81 inches, and the whole 
quantity of water which fell here during that time was a 
fraction more than seventy-six feet. In the twelve years 
following, from 1860 to 1871, both years inclusive, the rain- 
fall was thirty feet 6.57 inches. Annual average two feet 
6.65 inches. 

THE DETKOIT RIVER OR STRAIT, 

Connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair, is a magnificent 
stream which is never swollen by flood, or shallowed by 
drouth, and good anchorage everywhere. It is twenty-five 
miles long, from one-half to two miles wide, from thirty to 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 163 

fifty feet deep, and 236,000 cubic feet of water per second 
passes through it on to the sea, in its course plunging over 
tlie falls of Niagara. 

"Onward and over! still it goes, in free, 
Untamed, untiring speed, mile upon mile. 
To its last second bourn." 

The Niagara. 

"What are the cobweb creeds and musty riddles 
Of the schools, to teach Divinity? 
Proud sophist, puny babbler of another's doubts. 
Come and kneel here upon the tombstone 
Of thy dusty weakness, and be dumb. 
Here lean beyond this dizzy brink. 
And learn Philosophy in this. 
The Sanctuary and Solitude of wonders. 
Hast thou a tongue as eloquent as that 
Of deep calling unto deep? 
A voice as musically strong as that bold echo, 
Booming upward to the ear of God 
In one eternal, solemn tempest-tone. 
From yonder gulf, forever veiled 
With the dim curtaining of cloud? " 

Coyle. 

The niaxinium velocity of the current of the Detroit River 
is 2.71 miles per hour. The water is the purest fresh water 
found in any river in the world. It is the national boundary 
line between the United States and Canada. The lateral 
streams of water emptying into it are, on the Canada side, 
the River aux Canards, and on the American side, ascending 
from Lake Erie, the Huron River, Monguagon Creek, River 
Ecorse, River Rouge and May's Creek, below the city, and 
Parent Creek or *' Bloody Run," Connor's Creek and Pike 
Creek, above. 

There are seventeen islands in the river, named as follows : 
Clay, Celeron, Hickory, Sugar, Bois Blanc, Elba, Fox, Rock, 
Stony, Grosse, Turkey, Fighting, Mama Juda, Grassy, 
Mud, Belle and Peach. The two latter are above the city, 



164 SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 

the others below, between the city and Lake Erie, Belle 
Isle (formerly " Isle au Cochon "), was one hundred and 
twenty years ago (1763) the home of Pontiac, the greatest 
warrior of his race, and as said, " The Satan ef this paradise," 
and " The King and Lord of all this country." It is located 
at the head of the river, just above the east line of the city, 
and divides the water as it enters the river from Lake St. 
Clair, into two streams, each about one-half mile wide. The 
island contains about seven hundred and fifty acres of land, 
densely covered with forest trees. It was recently purchased 
by the city for a public park for the sum of $200,000 — and 
is now being improved for that purpose. Several large, 
magnificent steamers ply regularly to it from the city, con- 
veying large numbers of visitors to it daily during the warm 
weather. Isle a la Peche, now called Peach Island, a mile 
above tlie head of the channel south of Belle Isle Park, is 
about a mile long and its greatest width about three-quarters 
of a mile, and surrounded by the clear blue waters of Lake 
St. Clair, of a depth of from 25 to 30 feet. This beautiful 
lake is dotted by steam and sail vessels, ever in view, from 
the isle, bearing to its destination a commerce and traffic 
greater than the foreign commerce of the nation. The isle 
has recently been purchased by Mr. Hiram Walker, with the 
purpose of improving it and making another delightful 
pleasure retreat during the heated term. Grosse Isle, below 
the city about ten miles, is the largest in the river, on which 
there are a number of large, well-cultivated farms. Grapes 
of the best varieties are grown here with success and profit. 
This, as well as Belle Isle, Sugar and Slocum's isles, affords 
very pleasant places of retreat for citizens of our compact 
city during the extreme heat of summer. On some of the 
other islands are extensive stone quarries, and on several, in 
eluding Belle Isle and Peach Island, there are extensive fish- 
eries, where large quantities of white fish are annually taken. 
The villages on the strait are as follows : on the Canada 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 165 

side, Amherstburg, near the entrance from Lake Erie, Sand- 
wich, oj)posite the western limits of the city of Detroit, 
Windsor, opposite the centre of the city, and Walkertown, 
opposite the eastern limit of the city ; on tlie American side, 
Gibraltar, opposite Amherstburg, Trenton, opposite Grosse 
Isle, Wyandotte, ten miles below the city, Ecorse and Delray. 
The city of Detroit is situated on the north shore of the 
strait, with a frontage of about six miles and the line of 
docks about five miles. Its site gradually ascends to an ele- 
vation of from 20 to 30 feet at the first terrace, along which, 
parallel with the river, runs Jefferson avenue ; at the second 
terrace, along which runs Fort street, the elevation is from 25 
to 31 feet ; and at its northern limits, three miles from the 
river, the elevation is 58 feet The country back of the city 
continues to rise until, at Birmingham, 18 miles, it reaches 
an elevation of 400 feet. The natural drainage is all that 
could be desired, and the improvements by the city, by the 
construction of subterranean sewers, have rendered the drain- 
age perfect. 

The water of the river, from which the massed population 
of 160,000 souls receive their supply for consumption, comes 
from the great northern lakes covering an area of 76,000 
square miles, in which there is little if any lime, and is as 
soft and pure as rain water. Professor S. P. Duftield, who 
analyzed it, said: "I think it is impossible to find a river 
water in the world more free from organic impurities. The 
supply is furnished by means of powerful steam pumping 
engines, through about 200 miles of iron distributing pipes 
and carried into most dwellings. 

Up to 1679 the river was only navigated with bark canoes 
and " dug-outs," when in the month of August of that year, 
the schooner Griffin, of sixty tons burden, Robert de LaSalle 
commander, the first schooner that ever crossed Lake Erie, 
passed through the strait d'^etroit. 



166 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

>'* * * jq^ever had vessel along this shore 
Cleft these quiet waves before. 
No better craft was ever seen 
Than brave La Salle's stout brigantine. 
Out from the prow a Griffin springs, 
With scales of bronze and fiery wings, 
And the ship that earned so wide a fame 
Bore on the scroll the Griffin's name. 
******** 

A gilded eagle carved in wood 
On the crown of the quarterdeck castle stood, 
And from the staff astern unrolled, 
Floating aloft with its lilies of gold, 
The great white flag of France is spread. 
And the pennon decking the mainmast head 
Bears the chieftain's arms of red, 
Three black-nebbed falcons gaping wide 
Scowl through the ports on either side. 
And the old sergeant says they speak 
Each for a common day in the week, 
While the great bow gun with its heavy knell 
Rings as loud as a Sunday bell." 

Campbell's Lgeend of L'Anse Creuse: 

There was no ville D'Etroit here then ; all was in a state 
of nature, with a collection, here and there along its shores, 
of the rudely constructed bark wigwams of the natives of the 
forest. Fatlier Hennepin, who was a passenger on the Griffin, 
in his description of the scenery along the strait, said : " The 
islands are the finest in the world ; the strait is finer than 
Niagara; the banks are vast meadows, and the prospect is 
terminated with some hills covered with vineyards, trees 
bearing frnit, groves and forests so well disposed, that one 
would think that nature alone could not have made, without 
the help of art, so charming a prospect." 

The first steamboat that ever ascended the strait and dis- 
turbed its waters, was the Walk-in the-Water, Captain Job 
Fish, which arrived at Detroit from Black Rock in 1818 ; 

" While now the blue strait, whose depth no keel can reach, 
Continually resounds with the screw tug's awful screech," 




THE GRIFFIN, 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 169 

and durino- the season of navio-ation in 1880 the number of 
vessels — steam and sail — that arrived at the port of Detroit, 
was 40,521, aggregatino^ 20,235,294 tons. The entries by 
Sandy Plook and Hell Gate are fewer, I believe, than 15,000 
a year. 

Hon, O. D. Conger, M. C. from Michigan, in a debate in 
1876, said : " In this round world there is not another strait 
or river entrance to a harbor where so many vessels pass and 
repass as go through the straits connecting the upper and 
lower lakes. For six months in the year, tliere is on average 
the passage of a vessel every four and seven-tenths minutes 
by actual count. The passages through the straits have 
averaged 42,000 a year for the last five years by actual count, 
under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury." 

La D'' Etroit — the strait — in a state of nature, before the 
axe of Europeans felled a tree or the weeping grottoes of wild 
grape-vines, lining its shores, were disturbed — when 

" Majestic woods, of every vigorous green. 
Vine above vine, high waving o'er the strait; 
Or to the far horizon wide diffus'd 
A boundless deep immensity of shade," 

was described by Cadillac in a letter to M. de Calliers, dated 
October 8, 1701 (for a translation of which we are indebted 
to T. P. Hall, Esq.), as follows : 

" The profession of war differs from that of the writer, and 
I cannot without this latter qualification draw the picture of 
a country so worthy of a better pen than mine ; but since 
you have instructed me to return some account, I will do so, 
premising that the Detroit is properly a canal or river of 
moderate breadth, and of forty-five leagues in length (accord- 
ing to my estimate), situated north-northeast and south- 
southwest from where gently flow together and escape the 
living and crystalline waters of Lakes Superior, Michigan 
and Huron (which are so many fresh-water seas) into Lakes 



170 SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 

Erie, Ontario or Frontenac, whence finally they mingle in 
the E-iver St. Lawrence with the waters of the ocean. 

" Tlie banks are so many vast prairies where the freshness 
of these ever beautiful waters ever gives the grass a verdant 
tint. These same prairies are bordered by long and exten- 
sive groves of fruit trees which have never felt the solicitous 
hand of the skillful gardener, and these young and old fruit 
trees bend and curve their branches toward the fertile soil 
which has produced them. It is in this so fertile land that the 
ambitious vine which has not yet wept under the knife of 
the painstaking vine-dresser forms for itself a dense canopy 
with its luxurious branches and its bunches of grapes heavy 
on the head of whoever leans against it, often choking the one 
who ventures to embrace it too closely. It is in tli,ese vast 
thickets we can see congregated by hundreds the timid deer 
and shrinking doe with tlie roebuck bounding eagerly to 
gather the apples and plums with which the ground is paved. 
It is there that the watchful turkey calls together and con- 
ducts her numerous brood for harvestinof the grapes. It is 
there that the male turkeys come to fill their large and glut- 
tonous crops. The golden pheasants, the quail, the partridge, 
the abundant turtle dove, swarm in the woods and over the 
fields intersected and broken by clusters of tall forest trees, 
which afford a charming prospect, such as alone can assuage 
the sad irksomeness of solitude. It is there that the hand of 
the merciless gleaner has never cut the succulent grass which 
fattens the woolly bison to a gross and enormous bulk. 

" The woods are of ten varieties : Walnut, white oak, red 
oak, bastard ash, spruce, white-wood, cotton-wood, etc. ; but 
these same trees are straight as arrows, without knots and of 
prodigious size. It is there that the courageous eagle fiercely 
gazes on the sun, seeing at his feet the wherewithal to satisfy 
his proudly armed hand. 

"The fish is nourishing and bathed in living, crystalline 
water, and its great abundance renders it no less delicious. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 171 

The swans are in so great number tliat one might mistake 
them for the water lilies among which thej are entangled. 
The babbling goose, the teal, the bustard, are there so common 
that I do not wish for the purpose of convincing you of it, 
that the expression of a savage should serve me, of whom I 
asked, previous to arriving, whetlier the}^ had plenty of game 
there. 

" ' There is so much,' he said, ' that it arranges itself in 
lines, to permit a canoe to pass by.' 

" Can we believe that a soil on which nature has distributed 
everything with so much order, knows how to refuse, at the 
hand of the laborer inquisitive as to its fertile interior, any 
return that he may propose ? 

"In one word, the climate there is temperate, the atmos- 
phere pure during the day, the winds are moderate, and 
during the night the sky, ever serene, diffuses sweet, refresh- 
ing influences that enable one to taste the blessings of tran- 
quil sleep. 

" If the situation is thereby agreeable, it is none the less 
itnportant because it opens and closes the door of the passage 
to the homes of the far-off savage nations by whom these 
vast fresh-water seas are surrounded." 

LAKE FISHES. 

The lakes and rivers abound with fish. The varieties in- 
clude sturgeou, weighing 120 pounds, muskallonge (or as 
Lossing calls it, " Masque-alonge," French — " Long face," 
English)^ 50 pounds, trout, 60 pounds, pickerel, 15 pounds, 
pike, 15 pounds, catfish, 25 pounds, mullet, 10 pounds, white- 
fish from 2 to 10 pounds, herring, bass, perch, grayling and 
speckled or brook trout. Large numbers of siscoweit, a fish 
weighing from 3 to 10 pounds, are taken in Lake Superior. 
They are exceedingly fat, and when tried will yield 25 per 
cent, of oil. In the vicinity of the Sault Ste. Marie and all 
the streams emptying into Lake Superior, large quantities of 



172 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

speckled or brook trout are taken. The gi-ajling, a small 
gamy fish, abound in the Au Sable and other rivers in the 
northern section of the Lower Peninsula. 

From the time civilization dawned upon the shores of the 
lakes, the white fish has been regarded as the prince of fresh 
water fish, as set forth in the following poem, written by a 
resident of Detroit in 1840 : 



THE WHITE FISH. 

BY H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 

Of venison Goldsmith may wittily sing — 

A very fine haunch is a very fine thing; 

And Burns, in his tuneful and exquisite way, 

The charms of a smoking Scotch haggis display; 

But 'tis often much harder to eat than descant, 

And a poet may praise, what a poet may want; 

Less doubt there shall be 'twixt my muse and my dish, 

While her power I invoke in the praise of White-Fish. 

All friends to good living, by tureen and dish, 

Concur in exalting this prince of a fisii ; 

So fine in a platter, so tempting a fry. 

So rich on a gridiron, so sweet in a pie, 

Tliat even before it the salmon must fail. 

And that mighty honne-bouche of the land, beaver's-tail. 

This fish is a subject so dainty and white. 

To show in a lecture, to eat, or to write, 

That equal's my joy: I declare, on my life. 

To raise up my voice, or to raise up my knife, 

'Tis a morsel alike for the gourmand or faster; 

White, white as a tablet of pure alabaster ! 

Its beauty or flavor no person can doubt, 

When seen in the waters, or tasted without; 

And all the dispute that opinion e'er makes 

Of this king of lake fishes, this " deer of the lakes,"* 

Regards not its choiceness, to ponder or sup. 

But the best mode of dressing and serving it up. 

*A translation of Ad-dik-keem-maig, the Indian name for this fish. 



SKETCHES OF DETKOIT. 173 

Here rises a point, where good livers may differ, 

As tastes become fixed, or opinions are stiffer; 

Some men prefer roasted — some doat on a fry, 

Or extol the sweet gout of a " poisson-blanc " pie; 

The nice ' petit pate ' this palate excites, 

While that, on a boiled dish and ' bouillon ' delights; 

Some smoked and some salted, some fresh and some dried, 

Prefer to all fish in our waters beside; 

And 'tis thought the main question, if epicures look, 

Respects not the method, so much as the cook; 

For, like some moral dishes, that furnish a zest, 

Whate'er's best served up, is still thought the best. 

There are in gastronomy sages who think 
'Tis not only the prime of good victuals, but drink; 
That all sauces spoil it, the richer the quicker, 
And make it insipid, except its own liquor; 
These roll in a wild epigastric mirage. 
Preferring the dish d Id mode de sauvage : 
By which it quells hunger and thirstiness both — 
First eating the fish, and then drinking the broth: 
We leave this unsettled, for palates or pens, 
Who glean out of hundreds their critical tens. 
While drawn to the board, where full many a dish, 
Is slighted, to taste this American fish. 

The planter who whirls through the region by steam. 

The Creole who sings as he lashes his team, 

The merchant, the lawyer, the cit and the beau. 

The proud and gustative, the poor and the low, 

The gay habitant, the inquisitive tourist, 

The chemic physician, the dinner-crossed jurist, 

And even the ladies, the pride of the grove, 

Unite to extol it, and eat to approve : 

And oft the sweet morsel up-poised on the knife, 

Excites a bland smile from the blooming young wife; 

Nor dreams she a sea fish one moment compares. 

But is thinking the while not of fish but of heirs. 

To these, it is often a casual sweet, 

To dine by appointment, or taste as a treat; 

Not so, or in mental or physical joy. 

Comes the sight of that fish to the "courier du bois;" 



174 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

That wild troubadour and his joy-loving crew, 

Who sings as he paddles his birchen canoe, 

And thinks all the hardships that fall to his lot. 

Are richly made up at the platter and pot. 

To him, there's a charm neither feeble nor vague 

In the mighty repast of the " grande Ticameg ;"* 

And oft, as he starves amid Canada snows. 

And dry leather lichens, and "bouton de rose," 

He cheers up his spirits to think he shall still 

On "poisson-blanc bouillon" once more have his fill ! 

" Oh choice of all fishes 1" he sings as he goes, 

"Thou art sweeter to me than the Normandy rose, 

And the venison that's stol'n from the park of the king. 

Is never, by half, so delicious a thing !" 

The muse might appeal to the science of books, 
To picture its Ichthyological looks; 
Show what is its family likeness, or odds. 
Compared with its cousins, the salmons and cods; 
Tell where it approximates, point where it fails; 
By counting its fins, or dissecting the scales; 
Or prove by plain reason, (such proofs can be had,) 
'Tis not " toothless salmon," but rather lake shad. 
Here too might a fancy to descant inclined. 
Contemplate the lore that pertains to the kind. 
And bring up the red man, in fanciful strains. 
To prove its creation from feminine brains, f 
Or, point out its habits, migrations, and changes. 
The mode of its capture, its circles and ranges: 
But let me forbear — 'tis the fault of a song, 
A tale, or a book, if too learned or too long. 
Thus ends my discussion ; more would ye, I pray, 
Ask Mitchell or Harlan, Goldsmith, or Cuvier. 

* French orthography for the Indian name of this fish. 
t Vide "Indian Tales and Legends." 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 175 

THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. 

Why it is Great. 

The State of Michigan is 605 square miles larger than 
England and Wales, and its area is larger than either of the 
States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana or Illinois, 
and nearly as large as the whole of the six New England 
StateSo 

It has a coast line of 1,600 miles, along which vessels of 
2,000 tons burden may sail without losing sight of its terri- 
tory, and with a hundred, more or less, of small lakes in the 
Lower Peninsula, it is the best watered State in the Union. 
Lying in the embrace of immense inland seas, the largest in 
the world — its climate has no equal in the moderation of its 
temperature in any of the Western States east of the Rocky 
Mountains. To this fact is due its prominence in fruit rais- 
ing. The " Michigan fruit belt," bordering on Lake Michi- 
gan, has become famous. No part of the State is as far 
north as Paris, France. The reports of the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, show that in a series of six years, 
previous to and including 1880, the average yield of wheat 
per acre was greater in Michigan than it was in either of the 
States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, 
Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, the yield in Michigan 
averaging 19|^ bushels per acre. 

In the order of production Michigan stands first among 
the St-ates in the growth and manufacture of lumber, first in 
salt, fii'st in charcoal pig iron, certainly second, if not first, 
in iron ore, first in copper, first in fresh-water fish, fourth 
in wheat and fourth in wool. Dr. Franklin was familiar 
with the existence of mineral wealth on the shores of Lake 
Superior, from an examination of journals and charts of a 
corps of French Engineers that were exploring Lake 
Superior when Quebec fell. In drawing up the treaty of 
peace with England, in the city of Paris, he drew the 



176 SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 

national boundary line through Lake Superior so as to in- 
clude the best of the mineral range to the United States, 
remarking : " That the time would come when drawing that 
line would be considered the greatest service he ever ren- 
dered his country, and the co|3per ore to be a greater source 
of wealth than any other nation possessed ; that the facilities 
for transportation would be well improved, so as to export 
copper ore to Europe cheaper tlian they raised it from their 
own mines." Among the other leading products of the State 
are corn, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, potatoes, hay, peas, 
beans, hops, garden vegetables of all descriptions, apples, 
pears, cherries, peaches, plums, grapes, blackberries, 
raspberries, strawberries, whortleberries, live stock, butter 
cheese, honey, maple sugar, bitumous coal, slate and building 
stone. 

The value of its manufactured products, as given in the 
last census report, was about $200,000,000, 

The State abounds in delightful pleasure resorts, on the 
main land and islands in its lakes and rivers, and in artesian 
mineral wells whose waters prove efficacious in the treatment 
of painful and dangerous diseases. 

The State is practically free from debt. Its taxes are low, 
and one-third is applied to edacational purposes. Edu- 
cation is free to all, the primary schools, high schools, the 
Agricultural College and the University are open without 
charge for tuition to rich and poor alike. 

In population the State ranks ninth among the States of 
the Union. 

With the advantages of a healthy climate, a fertile soil, 
easy access to home and foreign markets, extraordinary 
facilities of transportation, a settled society, a generous school 
system, established institutions free from debt, and a low 
rate of taxation, it claims high rank among the States of the 
Union and second to none. 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



177 




MICHIGAN, MY MICHIGAN. 
By one of the fair daughters of the City of the Straits. 

Home of my heart, I sing of thee, 

Michigau, my Michigan; 
Thy lake-bound shores I long to see, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 
From Saginaw's tall whispering pines, 
To Lake Superior's farthest mines, 
Fair in the light of memory shines, 

Michigan, my Michigan, 
Fair in the light of memory shines, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

Dark roll'd the Rapahannock's flood, 

Michigan, my Michigan ; 
The tide was crimson with thy blood, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 
Although for us the day was lost, 
Yet shall it be our proudest boast, 
At Fredericksburgh our Seventh cross'd, 

Michigan, my Michigan, 
At Fredericksburgh our Seventh cross'd, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

With General Meade's victorious name, 

Michigan, my Michigan; 
Thy sons still onward march to fame, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 



178 



SKETCHES OF DETROIT. 



And foremost in the fight you'll see, 
Where'er the bravest dare to be. 
The sabres of our cavalry, 
Michigan, my Michigan. 

When weary, watching traitor foes, 

Michigan, my Michigan; 
The welcome night brings sweet repose, 

Michigan, my Michigan, 
The soldier weary from the fight, 
Sleeps sound nor fears the rebel's might. 
For "Michigan's on Guard To-night !" 

Michigan, my Michigan. 

And when the happy day shall come, 

Michigan, my Michigan, 
That brings thy war-worn heroes home, 

Michigan, my Michigan; 
What welcomes from thy own proud shore, 
What honors at their feet thou'lt pour, 
What tears for those who come no more, 

Michigan, my Michigan. 




CuAA" 



